Bella to the Rescue
by butterflykisses89
Summary: Bella, Alice, and Rose are sisters that deal in search and rescue. The meet the new guys in town and end up having to rescue them from the tragedies of an avalanche. Disclaimer: I don't own anything dealing with Twilight, that's all Stephenie Meyer.
1. Chapter 1

BPOV

My whistle pierced the house loudly, causing a rampage of dogs to charge through the living room from different locations of the large two-story house.

I got the leashes and attached to each dog's collar. Jacob, the large russet Anatolian Sheppard, sat still waiting for me to be completed, still wagging his tail enthusiastically. Seth, the sandy colored Akita, pranced and bounced trying to make sure that he was attached too, joined by Sam the large solid black Akita. Leah, my sweet white haired Alaskan malamute, sat and waited her turn as well, seeming to roll her eyes at the energetic males around her.

My sisters and I lived with these mongrels, loving having them around. Most would think that my sisters and I were stupid for owning four incredibly large dogs, but these dogs made us feel much more safe living on our own in this small town, Denali, Alaska.

My sisters Rosalie and Alice were out shopping, making sure that our already stylish wardrobes were up to date on styles. I however having to work, did not wish to join them, also not being into the aspect of shopping as they were.

My name is Isabella "Bella" Marie Hale, and I am twenty years old. My sisters, Rosalie Lillian Hale, are twenty- three and Mary Alice Hale twenty-two. We all work for Eleazar and Carmen, a beautiful couple that deal in search and rescue, which is another reason that we own these four beautiful animals.

At the current moment in time we were all single and hoping that circumstances would change this fact, mainly owing to three men that worked along side us, Mike, Tyler, and Eric, three of the biggest losers that refused to understand that we were just not interested in them. We also worked alongside Tanya, Kate, and Irina, who were unmistakably gorgeous, just like my sisters and I, and unfortunately for us happily in new relationships. But we were happy for them nonetheless.

After attaching the leashes to each collar, I trudged outside in the heavy snow headed for my large truck and the training facility. The training was going well as the dogs were not pulling me along the road to the truck and instead walking along my side, anticipation in their step. After ten minutes of locking the dogs into their respective crates and the forty minute drive to the building, we reached our destination. I climbed out of the enormous King Ranch 250 and unloaded the dogs.

We entered a large edifice with workout locations and varying training exercises. I went to work on different training techniques for the dogs waiting until my coworkers would join me with the other trainees.

Out of no where, the large red emergency phone rang, startling both me and the dogs. The dogs ran strait to the side of the building ready and waiting for instructions. T

his ringing phone only meant one thing, someone was in trouble. I answered the phone with the most calm and authoritative voice I could muster. Normally Carmen did this part, but as she was not here I was left to complete the task.  
"Search and recue,"

"This is a missing person report," The female voice said, speaking with authority in her voice, forcing every aspect of my own training to be used. "A young female, age 8 has gone missing from her parents in a skiing accident. Animal rescue needed." by this point I was starting to get nervous.

_How was I supposed to get ready, and still be there within a few moments?_

As I was speaking, Tanya and Carmen walked in, each holding back two puppies in training, seeing that I was currently on the phone they immediately went into action, Tanya readying the dogs and Carmen reaching for the phone so that I could head out.

"This is Carmen the head of this department. What is the emergency…? What is the general location of the missing child…Mount McKinley? Okay, which side…alright our teams are on their way."

During the conversation Tanya had the dogs attached to the sled and the first aid kit latched in place. I straddled the seat and tore out of the building heading to the west side of the mountain (Carmen had put in the needed information on the GPS navigation system). The dogs were focused and ready for action. I however was terrified, as always, hoping beyond hope that we would find the child quickly.

There was only one other time that my sisters and I had been working here, when we could not find the missing child- a boy about the age of ten. Every time I went out, or even slept, I saw that little boys face in my mind, blonde hair, blue eyes, and small frame. His name was Alec, and worse, he was a twin; she was confused and upset that we could not find her brother. Her paioned expression was still embedded in my memory.

I tore through the trees in a race against time, slowing to a stop beside the mountain rangers and the grieved mother and father.

I unhooked the dogs, who were already pulling at the leashes anyways, and set off after receiving enough information about the child's direction. Due East.

When I made it to the beginning of the trees, I unhooked the leashes and gave them the scent that needed to be found. After about two unnerving minutes the dogs charged through the trees. Good, the trail was hot!

I ran after them with the rangers close behind. Once about ten minutes of running was completed, we found the dogs barking with tails wagging, covering up a young girl. Her face was stained with tears, her small skis were lying broken a little ways a way, and her clothes were torn and messy.

I smiled in jubilation and ran over to the dogs, getting them off of the little girl. I glanced at her arms and legs, noting that there were only minor cuts and scrapes.

"Hello there, I'm Bella and these are my dogs. What's your name?

"B…Bree," she answered, shivering.

"Well how about I take you back to your mom and dad, 'cause they are very worried about you."

"Ok… k…kay," was her whispered and stuttering reply. I pulled her up and took off her wet coat, replacing it with my warm one. A female ranger came over with a snow mobile and helped Bree climb on.

The dogs were circling me and barking happy that they had found who they were looking for. I bent down and started playing their favorite game with them, fetch, rewarding for their good deed. I tossed the bright red ball in the direction we had come and raced them back to the sled.

When we returned I saw the heartwarming scene of mother and child reunited.

The father came up to me and shook my hand warmly thanking me for the work that I had done. I chuckled, "Don't thank me; they are the ones with the really good sense of smell." He laughed, turning to see his wife and daughter being tackled lovingly by four humungous dogs.  
"What are their names?" Bree asked, alread a rosy color returning to her cheeks.

"Well, the black one is Sam, the white one is Leah, the big sandy one with the black face is Jacob, and the other sandy one , that is currently licking your face, is Seth."

She giggled petting them all thanking them for rescuing her.

This is what it was all about.


	2. Chapter 2

EPOV

My brothers and I were headed for the edge of the cliff when several rangers approached us saying that this spot was closed, due to a missing persons report.  
"Oh, wow. Is everything alright, have they found the person?" My brother Jasper was sensitive and always was concerned about others.

"Wow that's unlucky. What happened?" My brother Emmett was also concerned, but I could also tell that he was slightly bummed that he would not be going down the 'hill of doom' as he called it.

"I'm sorry; I can't give you any information." The ranger turned continuing on his mission to keep the mountain closed.

My brothers and I had come to Alaska to have a vacation from our tedious jobs. Emmett was large; there was no other word for it, but a giant teddy bear. He was also twenty- five years old and the next in line to receive the family business, medicine, which he wasn't looking forward to, but knuckled down and kept his complaining to a minimum.

Jasper was twenty- three and tall with a lanky structure. As I said he is the sensitive one and seems to know how you're feeling before you do yourself. He was going into the other family business of weaponry, as a military weapons specialist.

As for me, I was the youngest, age twenty-one, not a bad looking guy, with this messy hair that would never do what I wanted it to, even though it seemed to attract the ladies. I was going into music; as the baby I didn't have a business plan already laid out for me, so I planned to do with my life what I choose.

We were the Cullen brothers, three of the hottest guys in the state of Washington and were ready to take on the world. That was until our eyes caught site of three gorgeous women on snow-mobiles, heading back up the mountain. One had four giant dogs attached to the back of her tow. Her brown hair was billowing out behind her and she was staring right at us! So were the other two, the short one on a yellow snowmobile threw her head back in a laugh. They turned their heads back in the direction and tore off, snow falling behind them in their wake.

Ooh man were we in trouble now!

BPOV

I put the dogs back on the snowmobile, having a little trouble because they clearly would have rather played, when my two sisters showed up on their own snowmobiles, with worried expressions. I smiled, informing them without words that everything was okay.

They pulled alongside me and pounced for details. While we successfully reined in the dogs I told them about the successful rescue of the little girl. They too had trouble sleeping sometimes with Alex always on the back of our minds.

We got on and headed back around the mountain, when Alice paged us, (we had something similar to walkie-talkies on the side of our helmets, so we could talk easily) she wanted coffee. We turned slightly and began our ascent up the mountain instead.

Rose called out suddenly, "Ooo- la-la, look at the hunks at ten o'clock" Alice and I glanced over. Three tall guys in ski masks toting snowboards were standing behind the red tape that blocked the mountain.

One was huge in a black and green ski suit holding a matching snowboard, the one in the middle was tall wearing a yellow and black suit, however his board was white, and the other one had this messy mat of bronze colored hair that went in all directions on the top of his head. He was in a blue and black ski suit, with a snow board that blue.

"Ooh yummy," was Alice's reply, "I call the tall blonde," she yelled. "Alice don't yell!" she repremanded. "Well I get the big hunk of a man on the left. I guess that leaves Bells with the bronze haired boy." Alice and Rose started laughing and raced to the top, leaving me behind with the dogs. That was fine; I doubted that guy would give me the time of day anyways. I kicked up a gear and raced after the girls.

Nestled at the top were a sporting goods store, the ski lift exit, and a Starbucks. We got off the ski-doos, making sure that they were locked and secure, not really needed to do so because of the protective dogs that were attached to the back.

Entering the Starbucks we began taking off some of the gear, waiting in line behind many others, not needing to decide what we wanted, as we were regulars and hardly ever veared from what we liked- only on special occasions. Or maybe because this place was so packed all the time it was just easier to know what you wanted before you got to the counter.

After standing in line for about ten minutes, I noticed that the three guys from the top of the mountain had entered as well. I nudged my sisters and nodded to the entrance. I was covered because we weren't the only ones checking out the three-some entrance, so was every other girl in the place and there were a lot of girls.

The place was rather small so the close packed quarters was starting to get to me, noticing the quickly filling coffee shop Rose went over to grab a table before the were gone. This was the only restraunt on the top of the hill, so it was normaly packed- but I guess that kept up busines. Alice went to the side counter and got straws, napkins and the like, while I approached the counter and ordered our typical drink orders. As workers on the mountain and regulars, we came to know the workers well; we also happened to know the owner to the shop- an old friend of the family named Billy.

"Hey Billy,"

"Let me guess, hot chocolate, de-cafe nonfat late, and an espresso?!" he joked.

"You know us so well," I laughed as I dug through my wallet for the right amount.

"No need its on the house. Attention ladies and gents, I would like to give a toast and a hand to the Hale girls for another search and rescue mission completed!" he shouted to the room, my face went ten shades of red and I smiled shyly as applause went out to my sisters and I. I grabbed our drinks and headed to our table, receiving 'congratulations' and 'great jobs' along the way.

As I got to the table Alice turned and went, "My goodness word travels fast!" Noticing my face she added, "Calm down Bells, you do this every time Billy announces 'congrats'."

"I know, you'd think I would be used to it, but it's not about the glory for me,"

"Bella it's not about that for us either, but you don't have to get embarrassed for doing your job." Rose stated logically.  
"I know, that doesn't mean it wont happen again though," at this my sisters laughed, agreeing wholeheartedly.

We chatted about the search, about shopping, and the mysterious men on the mountain, when out of no where they turned up, standing before us in all their manly glory.

_**End chap**_


	3. Chapter 3

EPOV

"Hi there," I spoke, trying not to relay my nervousness to these amazing women. I unfortunately had to be the spokesperson because Jasper was to quiet and anytime Emmett spoke he got us into trouble.

"Hello," they chimed, their voices melodious to my ears.

The blonde spoke up, "Is there something we can do for you? If someone has gone missing from your group, you first need to report it to the police…"

"Oh no, we just thought we would come and congratulate you on your rescue. We noticed you on the mountain, but didn't know what you were doing."

"Well the congratulations go to Bella; she is the one who was leading the search team." She pointed to the beautiful brunette that had a blush forming on her cheeks. _How adorable, _I thought.

Barking interrupted our conversation, making the girls look over their shoulders to see two guys and a girl taunting the dogs.

"Arg, why can't they just leave them alone?!" Bella cried out and raced out the doors followed closely by the two other girls.  
Emmett nudged me and nodded to follow suit.

We followed the girls out to hear shouting from the blonde; I noticed that the girl Bella was trying to calm the dogs down without much luck.  
"Why do you always have to pick on the dogs, they're not bothering you?! Get lost, or so help me I'll make sure you're arrested again!" the guy she was yelling at just laughed.

"Oh ya, I'd like to see you try!"

"James, you know these dogs don't like you and that we've asked you not to bother them, they're protected by the police force. Please, just leave _them_ and _us_ alone." Bella said putting the emphasis on them and us.

"But then I'll never get to see you," this James replied, inching closer and closer placing his hands on her waist. This for some unknown reason made me pissed, but I wasn't really concerned about the reason.  
"Hey, is there a problem here?!" I called, Emmett and Jasper, both with the same glares, followed behind me.

"None that concerns you," he stated and went back to feeling up this innocent woman.

"James let go of her! I swear on my father's grave if you touch her again I'll kill you!" the blonde shouted, but was caught by the other man, making her kick and hit to make him release her. The pixie-like girl was being held by the other woman and was also trying to be released from her captor.

I had seen enough, I went over, grabbed the guys shoulder and socked him right in the jaw, forcing him to release Bella. Emmett had done the same with the blonde's captor, but Jasper didn't have to do anything but reach out for the spiky haired pixy, as her captor ran over to James. I turned to Bella and asked her if she was okay; she smiled slowly and nodded a yes.

"Wow, you're my hero!" the little one shouted and jumped into Jasper's arms, catching him off guard, but easily melting at her embrace.

"I guess we owe you a thank you," said the blonde.

"How about we get your names first," Emmett answered.

"I'm Rosalie, the pixie is Alice, and that's Bella. We're sisters, even though we don't really look it."

"Well it is lovely to meet you," Jasper answered pulling off an interesting southern accent, causing Alice to giggle.

Bella turned around to face the barking dogs and settled them down easily.

"Well," Bella started quietly; "would you like to come with us, so that we can thank you…" she died off. I smiled loving her innocence.

"Ooh that's a great idea Bella!" Alice shouted bouncing up and down clapping her hands excitedly, causing Jasper to laugh at her antics.

"That sounds great, but we don't have a way to get there," I noted, Emmett eyed me mischievously, probably catching on to my idea of riding with the girls.  
"Well I guess you'll just have to ride with us wont you," Rosalie stated matter-of-factly. She grabbed hold of Emmett's shirt and pulled him to her fire red snowmobile. Emmett's eyes got wide and excited; glancing at me he waggled his eye- brows up and down. Alice pulled Jasper to her yellow snow-cat climbing up front forcing Jasper to sit in back.

"Miss Alice, shouldn't I drive?"

Alice giggled, "Aww, you're a gentleman, but this is specially designed for me. Oh and you don't have to call me 'miss'" causing Jasper to chuckle and wrap his arms around her waist. This left me and Bella, who looking scared. "Wait, what do I do?" I can't pull him, me and the dogs!" she whispered a shriek at Rosalie.

"Of course you can Bella, those snowmobiles pull more weight than you can imagine." Rosalie got of the snowmobile and pulled Bella to the side and whispered to her trying to comfort her.

My gaze dropped and heart sank, clearly this girl was not looking forward to having me strapped to the back of her. Jasper caught my eye and smiled, trying to cheer me up. I took a deep breath and met her at the blue snowmobile. I got on after her and kept my arms at my side so as not to make her feel uncomfortable.

She turned and glanced up, blushing slightly.  
"Um you're gonna want to hang on, they tend to go fast, I have to keep up and it's kind of a long ride." I smiled and nodded, wrapping my arms around her waist, sending a spark up and down my arms.

_I wonder if she could feel that_ I thought, but quickly countered with the idea that she had no interest in me anyway.

BPOV _**(in EPOV too)**_

I pulled out behind my sisters, the amazing green eyed beauty sitting just behind me.

"Hey, it just dawned on me, what's your name?" I shouted over the engine. I felt his body move in a laugh and shouted a name back to me, "Edward". _What a beautiful name, very suited for this guy,_ I thought.

The ride came to a close as we rode over the hill. We had been talking the whole way, making casual conversation. He also informed me that his brother's names were Emmett and Jasper; Emmett being the large bear of a man and Jasper the tall bean poll.

I parked the snowmobile in the garage and climbed off, kicking Edward in the process! I panicked and fluttered around apologizing profusely reaching for the first aid kit in the saddle bags. Edward just laughed and waved his hand telling me he was fine, no harm no foul.

Rosalie had gotten off and came up to me trying to calm me down; she always was able to do that even when we were little. Edward still chuckling his stomach said that all that had been done was get the wind knocked out of him. Emmett laughed loudly at this causing me to turn even redder than when I kicked Edward.

Alice and Rose led the others into the building, leaving me to take care of the dogs. I bent down and unhooked the latches on their cages and brought them over to the water dishes by the wall.

I turned around and jumped a mile into the air, having just realized that Edward was still standing there, possibly admiring the view, as I had my butt in the air most of the time. _Don't think like that, besides I doubt he thinks of you like that. But he is a guy, _I thought. I blushed catching his stare and looked away quickly. He smiled this crooked grin that took _my_ breath away.

"You're really good with them," he said breaking the silence between us. "How long have you had them, that's assuming that they are in fact yours?"

I nodded, "Thanks, we have owned them for about four years, training them everyday. I get stuck with that job most of the time, since my sisters are not as into them as I am, Rosalie more so than Alice."

"Who's your favorite?"

I laughed, "I can't pick a favorite! They're my babies, although most days I get along with Jacob the best, but Leah is the calmest of the bunch making her easier to handle. Yet Seth is the fun one, so I tend to play around with him. Sam is more the protector than anything, but he can be amusing. To me he's the one that would rather be at your side than any place else in the world." I shrugged my shoulders, looking over at my favorite pals in the universe.

They trotted over to me and sat at my heels, Jacob moving in between Edward and I. Seth walked right up to Edward and started sniffing his shoes and then started licking them. I called out to Seth and made him sit by me. Leah was on my left and Sam sat on my right staring at Edward without moving, almost sizing him up in a way.

Edward seeing the challenge I suppose kneeled down to Sam's level, which wasn't to hard as he was a rather big dog. I tossed him a bag of treats, so that he could show the animals he was a good guy. Seth jogged over and began chewing the treats easily, followed closely by Jacob. Sam and Leah on the other hand were harder to coax.

I bent down next to Edward, losing my balance and landing on my butt anyway, and was able to bring them closer. Then seizing his opportunity, Jacob tackled me and covered my face in kisses. The others joining him; I could hear Edward laughing at the spectacle.  
"Ugh, Jake, guys, get off!" I pushed to no avail.

"Can you help me out?!" I shouted at Edward. "But you look like your handling it so well," he called back. I pushed Jake off, pushing him into Seth, finding room enough for me to sit up. A hand reached out and pulled me up, I looked up and found myself inches from Edwards face, even more so his lips.

"Hey you two are you coming or what?!" Alice shouted causing us both to startle and separate.

"Coming," I called after her. I patted my leg and led the pack and Edward inside.

_**End**_

It was getting kinda long so I stopped.


	4. Chapter 4

EPOV

After settling on the snowmobile, we headed out. I realized quickly that Alice loved to speed and was already half-way up the hill when we finally got started. Rose wasn't too far behind. Bella trying to catch up to her sisters hit the gas, speeding along till she caught up with her sister Rose.  
"Hey, it just dawned on me, what's your name?"

I laughed having felt foolish enough to know hers, but not give her my own.

"Edward," I called back to her. She was incredibly easy to talk to and continually surprised me with her answers to my questions.

When we arrived at the building, she pulled the machine into a large garage and turned off the engine. She started to get off, but kicked me in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me. She started flailing around, flapping her arms, and asking me if I was okay. She reached for the first- aid, but I just waved my hand, laughing. "Its okay I'm fine really, no harm, no foul." Rosalie came over to her, easily calming her down.

The two girls led my brothers inside, leaving Bella to tend to the dogs. _How interesting_, I thought.

I got off the snowmobile and turned to see Bella's butt sticking in the air as she unhooked the cages, leading them over to the side wall where a series of bowls sat filled with water.

She again leaned over, giving me full view of her ass. I crossed my arms, amused, knowing full well that she had no idea that I was still here.

She turned and jumped a foot in the air, finally taking notice of my presence. She blushed and looked at the floor. She glanced up and I smiled a grin that seemed to catch her off guard.  
"You're really good with them," I noted "How long have you had them, that's assuming that they are in fact yours?" I didn't want to make assumptions, since she only worked here.

She nodded her head and replied, "Thanks, we have owned them for about four years, training them everyday. I get stuck with that job most of the time, since my sisters are not as into them as I am, Rosalie more so than Alice."

"Who's your favorite?" she looked at me aghast and chuckled delicately.

"I can't pick a favorite! They're my babies, although most days I get along with Jacob the best, but Leah is the calmest of the bunch making her easier to handle. Yet Seth is the fun one, so I tend to play around with him. Sam is more the protector than anything, but he can be amusing. To me he's the one that would rather be at your side than any place else in the world." She shrugged her shoulders and looked back at them with admiration in her chocolate brown eyes.

Seeing her spying on them, the dogs trotted over to her and sat down. Except this sandy colored one that I believe was an Akita, but so many of these northern dogs all looked alike it was hard to know the difference.

He sniffed my shoes and started licking them, _I wonder what he smells_, I thought. "Seth come here." She called him over, _Seth, that's an interesting name. I wonder why he's named that. _

A large tan dog with a black face sat down right in front of her, almost glaring in my direction. A black one that looked similar to Seth was sitting on her right, and the fourth dog, a female I noticed, was sitting on her left. The black dog stared at me with an unrelenting gaze.

I decided to play it smart and get eye-level with him. Bella tossed me some treats, that I poured into my hand and held them out one by one. Seth the sandy colored dog, jogged over, clearly not intimidated by me. The biggest one with the black face followed quickly behind, but I could see he just wanted the food.

The other two did not look as keen on joining their fellows and eyed me suspiciously; well the black one did anyway. The white one looked up at Bella as if asking for permission and confirmation that I was a good guy.

Bella came over and tried to squat, but ended up falling over onto her backside anyways. With her by my side the other two joined us, making it a special moment for me as I bonded with man's- best- friend or 'Bella's- best- friend'.

Jake suddenly tackled Bella and began licking her face, in a frenzy to join the other dogs walked over her, licking, and playing with their lovable owner. I couldn't help but laugh at this rather funny picture, four large dogs on top of a rather petite girl. It looked like she was trying to shove them off, but she was not succeeding.

"Ugh, Jake, guys, get off!" She called out to me "Can you help me out?!" I kept laughing and replied in a sarcastic manner, "But you look like your handling it so well,"

After a moment or two, she pushed at Jake, who stumbled into Seth and sat up. I reached out my hand to help her stand. She took it and I easily pulled her up, not noticing until she peered up at me.

We were in a very close position; I could feel her cool breath against my neck and face, her full red lips only inches from mine. _Maybe she wont care,_ I battled in my head if I shouldn't just close the gap, when her sister Alice called out loudly "Hey you two are you coming or what?!"

We both were alarmed by the sudden out burst and shifted apart. "Coming," Bella cried out. Patting her leg, she led me and the dogs into the building. I felt like one of these dogs, I'd follow her anywhere.

BPOV

I walked into the gym setting where the training was being held. I watched as Rosalie took the puppies that were just beginning. Emmett was watching from behind with a large grin on his face, mainly due to the fact that Max, the youngest Alaskan malamute, was not following orders at all. I suppressed a giggle, so that I would not become the target of Rose's frustration.

Alice was having Juno run the obstacle coarse with ease, as she was older than Max and had a little more training under her belt. I walked over to Rose, barking a basic command at Max. She smiled ruefully at me and continued with what she was trying to do from the beginning, have Max sniff out his bone.

Jasper was looking adoringly at Alice, but Emmett was trying not to laugh at poor Rose as she suddenly was jumped on by Max, who licked her profusely. Alice and I quickly went into action as we pulled off the dog.  
"I am going to _kill_ Tanya's dog if he _ever _does that to me again!"

Emmett came over to Rose and scooped her up bridal style. She gasped in shock, and then blushed as he whispered in her ear. Now I was in shock!

"Rosalie Hale did you just blush?!" Alice shouted incredulously  
"Hey that's my job," I teased. Rose turned to us replying, "Hey it's in the genes!" I turned to Alice, "She does have a point, I mean, think about mom."

I turned focusing my attention on Max, forcing him back to his cage. Alice followed me with Juno.

Alice turned back to Jasper and the others and asked, "You guys hungry?" The boys nodded and followed after her, Rose still in Emmett's huge arms. Edward came over and offered me his arm, "Allow me." I blushed and giggled at his gentlemanly manner.

When we entered the lounge Emmett placed Rose gently on the chair and sat down be side her. Jasper found the comfortable arm chair, which oddly enough was Alice's favorite. She then turned and sat on his knee. Edward and I made our way over to the loveseat. I blushed slightly at the name, as well as the thought of what has been done on this couch.

Tanya entered with her sisters, Garrett, Nathan, and Sean in tow. Garrett was Kate's newest boyfriend, which was starting to look rather serious. Nathan was Tanya's 'bad boy', who was a genuinely nice guy underneath. Irina was in an awkward stage with her boyfriend Sean; they were not sure if they wanted to go to the next level or not.

Once introductions were complete, we sat down munching on snacks, talking animatedly about anything that came up. Emmett brought up the new movie that was supposed to come out the next weekend. I had heard about it, but had no intension on watching so gross a horror flick. Emmett asked if we should make it a group thing, several others were vaguely intrigued. Alice and I sighed.

"We can't," she started; I could easily tell Jasper was disappointed. "Bella and I are on call that day; two people always have to be here in case something happens. I would love to come, I'm not sure Bella would though anyway, but even if she did we can't."

"Well how about another day," Jasper offered.  
"But then me and Kate can't come," Rose piped up, almost in a winy manner. Rose was more into the horror and gore than Alice and I.

"Is there a day that all of us can go?" Edward asked.

"Not until about three weeks when the boys are on." Irina replied looking at the updated calendar behind her.

Garrett started, "What if you switched with them?"

"I don't think Eleazer would go for that. They were on last weekend. That and we have done that before, before the girls started working here, and the privilege was abused.

"Well that's a bummer." Someone said, voicing the opinions of the group.  
After an hour passed, doing nothing but talking and laughing, the boys got up when Edward reminded them that Emmett had a conference call at five, also saying that plans to meet their parents for dinner was not something they could miss.

Edward turned to me looking uncomfortable, uncertain as to what to do. I simply offered my hand, "Thanks for everything you did for me and my sisters this morning. It was very nice to meet you. Maybe we could get together…maybe…?" I died off blushing at the very idea of making the first move. Edward looked at me with wide eyes and smiled the knee-buckling smile he had done earlier today. _Why did my stomach just flip?_ I thought, _I barely know this guy._  
"How about tomorrow afternoon, we could meet here and you could show me some tricks with the dogs?" he offered.

_Aww_ I couldn't help think. Maybe he knows I feel more comfortable around them. He turned around, giving a small smile, and followed his brothers out of the room.

At the same time Alice, Rosalie, and I sighed and plopped down into our chairs.

"Aww, I think the Hale girls are in _loooove!_" Kate taunted.

"I know I am!" admitted Rose.

"Ditto!" cried Alice.

Everyone just turned and looked at me, I blushed deeply and smiled. Screaming commenced and a pillow was tossed hitting Rosalie squarely in the face, not taking long, it became an all out brawl.

_**End**_


	5. Chapter 5

EPOV

As we excited the training facility, Emmett hit me on the back.  
"I saw that look you gave Bella," he stated accusingly.

"Yeah, well I have an idea what you whispered to Rosalie," I shuddered, while he laughed.

"That's no secret. I told her-"

"Ah, I don't want to hear!"  
"Nor do I," added Jasper.

"Hey how are we going to get back? We left the car at the top of the mountain."

"Well I could give you a ride back. I'm headed that way. I live on the other side of the mountain." Garrett told me.

He led us around the side of the building to a large dodge pickup.

"Not exactly a sports car, but around here it might as well be," he added, as we climbed in fitting comfortably.

The drive to the top was short and sweet, but we were able to find out a little more about the Hale sisters from Garrett. For instance, Alice was a shop-aholic, Rose liked to shop too but not to the same extreme; Bella was the one who despised it, only going if forced. Bella loved to read and hang out with friends or the dogs. Rose just loved doing something, whether it is athletic or just hanging out.

It seemed that the girls were very different, but had some similar attributes. They were all straight A students through school, including college. Most importantly, they were there for each other for everything.

According to Garrett, the girls had gone through some difficult times after losing their mom, and then several years later their father followed. Being all full adults they lived on their own, living off inheritance money from their parents and grandparents. Rose was barely 18 when their father died, so she was forced to take in her younger sisters, living in a small apartment until school finished for them all.

"How did they meet Eleazar and Carmen?" Emmett asked.

"Oh, um well actually they met through Kate and the girls. Carmen is Kate's aunt, and Rose met the girls doing some part-time modeling to help pay for school. Kate introduced them and Carmen, being as sweet as she is, took them in. She even helped design their house."

"Wow, these are quite the girls." Emmett finished

"Yea and that's quite a story." Jasper added.

"Now I have to be serious, these girls mean a lot to Kate, Tanya, and Irina. Sean and I have treated these girls like extended sisters to Kate and Irina, so seriously, you hurt any of them and I will personally make sure you don't hurt another soul."

Jasper chuckled, "Garrett, I personally can't hurt Alice if my life depended on it, I know I only met her today, but I feel like I've known her forever…" his eyes became distant.  
Emmett took over saying, "Dude, we were raised right. And I second what Jazz said, I don't think we could hurt these girls if we tried."

My brothers climbed out and as I hopped out I turned back, "Thanks, its nice to know that they have someone looking out for them."


	6. Chapter 6

BPOV

I was sitting in the kitchen reading _Pride and Prejudice_ and snacking on some pop-tarts, when Carmen walked in.

Carmen was a beautiful woman with long wavy black hair and an olive complexion from her Spanish heritage. She was kind and took my sisters and I in after learning that we were on our own with no real place to live. She was creative and loving, trustworthy and motherly. She was our 'safe-harbor' when we needed someone to turn to, or when one of us three sisters where in having a rift.

A smile on her lips she turned to me, "Congratulations Bells on the rescue."

"Thanks," I replied, "you should really congratulate the dogs, they're the ones that found the girl."

"Oh I already did." She said with a grin.

I looked at her with curious wondering eyes at what she meant, "You don't mean that you gave them their favorite treat, do you?"

"Of course I did, I always give them a treat after a brilliant rescue." She stated simply, the smile still on her lips and mischief in her eyes.

"Ooo, you better not let Alice hear that- she's got them on some special diet."

Tanya walked in at the end of my statement, "Who's on a diet?" she asked curiously walking over to the fridge.

"The dogs, Alice is making them diet to keep them in shape or something like that, but Carmen gave the dogs her 'special treat' again." I told her putting quotes around 'special treat'. I finished my statement eyeing Carmen unhappily, yet a smile on my lips- Carmen knew I didn't care, except for the smell.

"Ooh you better hope Alice doesn't find out. The one time I fed their dogs, she threw a hissy fit that I fed them the wrong brand of dog food." she stated with a roll of her eyes, shutting the refrigerator door and twisting open the cap on her water bottle.

"Besides you know what happens when you give that stuff to Jake…ugh the smell is horrid." I told her with a shudder, remembering the last time Carmen gave the dogs her special treat.

It apparently did not sit well in Jake's system, because the smell was horrible- inside the training center, the car! (Making us roll down the windows), as well as the house! Alice was not happy, Rose thought it was funny when it started, but when it got steadily worse- well she sent him outside.

"Well what Alice doesn't know won't hurt her." Carmen stated with a nod of her head, holding her cup of coffee she had poured while listening to our rants. A smile was on her face.  
"Well tell that to Jake! Cause he's gonna blow it- and I mean that literally!" I called to her as she exited the room.

"Hello Alice!" we heard Carmen say, her voice echoing down the hall.  
"Good afternoon Carmen!" was Alice's cheery reply.

I looked knowingly at Tanya, who chuckled at walked out behind Carmen. Leaving me to hide the knowledge of Carmen's secret treat from Alice, even though she usually saw right threw me.

"Hey Tanya",  
"Alice" I saw her nod acknowledging Alice and slipped past.

Alice entered the room with a bounce in her step, which was quite common, also informing me to the fact that she did not yet know about the treat. I smiled at her entrance, taking a bite of my strawberry pop-tart.

"Hello sister!"

"Hey," I replied.

She skipped around me to the fridge, humming along the way. I eyed her suspiciously.

"You're even more hyper than usual, if that's possible. What's up?"

She turned around avoiding my gaze.  
"This room could do with a good make-over- Alice style!"

I looked around the room. The kitchen was rather small, holding only one table, a counter with a sink and dishwasher below it, two cabinets above that, and the refrigerator beside the end of the counter and the far wall. The walls were a plain white. The only window was rather dirty and had plain cream blinds on them. The appliances where somewhat new, but showing scratch marks and scuffs along the bottom.  
"You're avoiding the question?" I said looking at her from the corner of my eyes, fully wondering what she was up to.

She bounced over to the table and sat across from me. She took a breath and let it out quickly.

"I was kind of hoping we could see the guys again, tonight or tomorrow?" she looked at me straight on, eyes pleading. I couldn't understand why she was trying to get my permission- I was the baby for crying out loud!

"Okay…" I said slowly. "Why are you asking me?"

"Well, I wasn't sure if you had plans, and I didn't want to invite them over without you knowing about it first."

"I could care less Alice." I said looking back at my book. "Besides you always know my schedule, sometimes before I do!" I told her not looking up from my reading.

"Yeah!" she squealed, "I knew you would accept! Now we have to go home and get ready!"

She pulled my hand from across the table and pulled me along behind her, knocking off my book. I grabbed for the book and followed my sister out the door, stopping suddenly and grabbing my trash. The look on her face was aggravated due to my lagging. She smiled as I stepped in behind her, following her out the door.

"Rosie, come on! Its time to go!" she shouted across the room.

After pulling on our gear and clocking out, we trudged out into the deep snow. Alice must have told Rose before me, as the dogs were already in the truck, tails wagging.

We climbed into the truck, Rose driving, Alice in the middle, and me on the end, and drove away.

The whole way home, Alice talked animatedly about having the guys come over. I chuckled at her.  
"Alice have you even invited them?" Rose smiled at my question. Alice just stuck her tongue out at me.  
"Wait, do you even have their number?" I asked completely confused now. Alice's look said 'duh!', so I chuckled and let it go.

Rose pulled into the 3-car garage, owing to the fact that we had two cars and three ski-doos of our own on the far end. The truck belonged to all of us, but the BMW M6 was Rosalie's, one she earned with her modeling money, and refused to let Alice or I drive it. It was fine with me, I preferred the truck. Alice was working on earning enough money for her own car- she was getting pretty close.

We jumped, got the dogs out, and walked inside the house. Our house was designed by Carmen, but the rooms were done by Alice. Rose had a few specifics she wanted included, but as for me as long as I had a room I wasn't too picky.

The house was two stories tall, with a porch along the front, and the garage on the side of the house. There were six rooms in the house, three bedrooms, one office/library, a guest room, and a game/movie room. We each had our own bathroom and walk-in closet, not that I really needed it, but whatever. The living room was in the center of the first floor, a banister on the second floor wrapped around the living room, allowing you to look over from any angle of the second floor into the living area. The kitchen and dining room were to the right and behind the living room; the game room, office, and guest bedroom off to the left. Our bedrooms were all upstairs, owing to the fact that they were all master bedrooms. A demand by Alice.

The bedrooms were each done to our liking, Alice's pink and black floral motif with matching bedspread. The headboard was a large padded black headboard that had pink buttons. Her bathroom was a matching theme of pink and black. Rose's was more of a French theme of red and black. Her bead was wooden with a lace canopy. The bedspread was white with a black French emblem pattern. One of the walls had the same pattern, but with a few red's mixed in. Her bathroom was also red, white, and black. My room was a subtle blue on the walls, white base boards, and white shutters on the windows as a design. The bedspread was solid white with blue and white pillows. A soft fluffy white rug lay on the sandy colored hard wood floors, which flowed through most of the house, except the hall-ways and living room, which were carpeted.

I walked upstairs, Jake and Seth on my heels. Sam wandered over to the tiled floor by the back door, lying down. Leah following Rose- the only dog Rose actually got along with- to Rose's bedroom.

I kicked off my shoes and fell back on the bed, my arms raised above my head, legs dangling off the bed. I sighed and sat up. Jake was watching me from his bed in the corner of the room, and Seth was curled into a ball on his.

I sat there, knowing Alice would bound in soon telling me what to put on, whether I liked it or not. Sure enough… Alice came skipping into the room a smile on her face and a gleam in her eye.

"Have you called them?"

"Yes. And they said they would love to- after they have dinner with their parents of course."

She flitted over to the closet doors and opened them wide.

"Don't get lost," I shouted after her, and flopped back on the bad. This might take a while.

My mind drifted over the events of the day. The successful rescue and the interesting turn of events involving three handsome guys. I thought over what happened between Edward and James and wondered why he was willing to punch a strange guy. I mean it's not like he knew us or anything? Maybe he was just being nice. I argued in my head and just decided it was they were raised to do.

I sat up hearing Alice come back into the room, her hands cradling several outfits. I groaned.  
"Alice I don't feel like playing dress-up. Can't you just decide? You do anyways." I slouched my shoulders, and put on my best puppy-dog face. Alice giggled at my antics.

"Don't worry. I'm just gonna hold these up to you."

She began tossing outfits to the side, a critic for each one. I just sat there waiting to be informed of which outfit- hopefully not a dress- to put on. She finally decided on a yellow strapless dress with dark skinny jeans. I wouldn't need shoes she told me as we would be staying in.

I took the clothes and went into the bathroom, a blue, white, and black motif that complemented my room, and started a shower.

Twenty minutes later I got out and put the clothes on. I went back into my room combing my hair. Alice walked in fully dressed, in a mini-skirt and pink tank top with a jean jacket, and showered forcing me to sit down at my dresser.

"Here, put on the basics, and you will be good. Just leave your hair down, oh and blow-dry it please- I want to see cute little waves!" she added with a smile, then pranced out of the room.

I shook my head at her and began applying the color pallet that she gave me to my eye-lids. With mascara and light pink lip gloss. I wouldn't need blush as I did that enough already.

I slipped on my slippers and made my way downstairs. Jake and Seth were out cold and snoring rather loudly, so they didn't follow like usual. I heard the shower still going in Rose's room, and music blaring from the stereo in the hall-way between Alice's and Rose's room.

I walked carefully down the stairs, trying not to trip _again_. I headed over to the leather couch and plopped down grabbing for the remote. I clicked the power button to our 50" inch flat screen that hung on the wall, scrolling through the many channels available.

Most would probably see our house and think we were rich, but in truth that wasn't really the case. Our parents were middle class and did not leave much behind. Luckily they had planned ahead- thanks to our parents friends- leaving money behind for the funeral, we had some to pay for random expenses. Most was earned through Rose's modeling career, even though it was short lived, as well as Alice's fashion designs she was paid for. We were also good with our money, saving most of it. Alice also invested in some stocks and real-estate, tending to know when to take out the money due to shifts in the stock prices or whatever. Either way we were making good on our own and got a lot of help from Carmen and Eleazer.

I turned off the TV and reclined, Sam coming over to me and putting his head on the arm of the chair I was in. I rubbed behind his ears and relaxed into the chair.

I was almost out when Alice danced down the stairs and called out to me to wake up; Rose following along behind. Rose was wearing jeans and red corset tank-top. I couldn't help but sigh slightly and lose a little bit of my confidence seeing the two.  
Rose possibly hearing the sigh, "Bella, quit putting yourself down, you look gorgeous too!" I sighed again and put on my best smile, "Sorry," was my sheepish reply.

Leah, Jake, and Seth trotted along behind them, wanting to be wherever we were.

We sat down in separate chairs and waited with baited breath for the boys to arrive.

A car pulled up at 8:30 and three doors slammed shut. The boys had arrived!


	7. Chapter 7

EPOV

My brothers trudged out in the cold snow over to Emmett's black 2009 Ford F-150; that he rented out for our trip here.

I climbed into the roomy back seat. The truck was spacious, with six seats and tan leather interior.

Emmett was falling in love with it and debating on whether or not to just keep it, but then he would think of his custom designed Jeep Wrangler Rubicon that was sitting at home in the garage and change his mind.

I kicked my feet up on the long seat next to me and laid my head back thinking of the beautiful girl Bella.

"Yo dude! Get your feet off the seat! This is a rental; I don't want to have to pay extra because of the mud that came off your shoes!"

I chuckled and complied- knowing Emmett he would probably make me pay for it since it was my fault.

"So, what'd you think about those girls huh?" Emmett asked.

"I mean they are not exactly the kinda girls we typically meet- particularly in our line of work."

"Well they're not the typical girl's period." Jasper stated. He was right these girls would chew other girls up and spit them out.

"But think about it- Eddie," I cringed and scowled at the stupid nickname, "the girls you work with are either stuck up, gay, or something beyond messed up." he finished ignoring the glare that I gave him.

As I thought about it the girls I worked with were not any of those- sure a few here and there- but that was bound to be true for any school or workplace. The girls there were simply focused- most in fact were.

I had no interest in them, even though I had plenty of 'offers' as it were with the constant flirtation that was around, mainly because I my self was focused- at least that's what I told my-self. My brothers told me I was being picky, my mom told me in a nicer fashion that I simply hadn't found what I was looking for.

"That's not true; they're just focused to an extreme."

"Oh so that's what they call it now." He stated with a chuckle.

"I guess I had it coming though. Think of how many girls would jump you if they found out you were just a big romantic at heart?" I retorted. He glared and suddenly shivered as he let that process.

"For me it's not only the fact that I am a musician-"

"A good one at that," Jasper interrupted.

"-It's the fact that I, along with my two older brothers, am charming handsome- and _rich_." That's really all the girls thought about, how much _stuff_ I could dote upon them. A shiver ran down my spine. Like most of them needed it anyways.

I was attending California Institute of the Arts, earning a Masters in Music Theory and Composition with a minor in Music Management and Merchandizing as well as Music Performance. The girls there were either there for some form of dance, or music performance, whether it was vocal or instrumental. A few girls I had run across were sincere and more focused, yet still friendly, but more often than not I ran into an absorbed 'Daddy's girl' that just wanted me as a trophy of sorts.

"What about you? The girls you work with fawn over you." I stated remembering when I went to give him his forgotten wallet, only to find girls swooning over him- then seeing me _started hitting on me_!

Emmett chuckled, "Yeah, you would think that I would have _no_ problem picking up the ladies, but I was never interested. They seemed…I don't know… superficial. Oh and they never seemed to focus on their _job_!" Jasper and I laughed, Emmett joining soon after.

"Well let's see, Edward has girls that are either stuck up and rude, Emmett has girls that swoon, what does that leave me with…?"

"Military stick-in-the mud's?!" Emmett called out laughing before Jasper could finish his sentence.

"No!" He groaned in aggravation to our brother's statement.

"They're nice and they're focused, unlike your coworkers. They have fun, but know when to be serious. Heck they can even take a joke! Do you remember that time when you came to my office and started cracking off army and navy jokes and every girl sitting there was either laughing or smiling?"

We all started laughing at the memory. Jasper worked in Military office surrounded by only a few women- which were starting to grow in number, which Jasper found inspiring- most of which had to remain focused on their job so as to prove themselves. Most of the time they rolled their eyes at whatever stupid joke my brother came up with and left the room, a few times though my brother would say something that made them laugh- it was easy to do with him around. Ever since we were kids he could take a somber room and fill it with laughter.

"I guess though I'm too focused and not really interested in those around me," Jasper finished.

"Whatever happened to that girl that you used to work with? What was her name?... Charlotte?" Emmett asked remembering a brown haired girl that worked in a near-by desk to Jasper.

"Oh, yeah Charlotte; she got married to Peter and then was reassigned to a European country." Peter was a good friend of Jasper's that he went to boot-camp with; Jazz was the one who introduced Peter to Charlotte.

Our conversation slowly died down thinking of the many women that had hit on us and were turned down. We spoke about many a date that went down-hill; occasionally remembering one's that had promise, but in the end didn't work out. Hopefully change was in our future.

********

We had been driving for about ten minuets when we arrived at the hotel that we were staying at. Emmett parked the car and we grabbed our boards and headed to the sliding glass doors. A very cheery lady rushed up to us

"Good day Mr. Cullen's. Is there anything that we can do for you here at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge?" (Don't ask me our mother picked it! The place was enormous and stylish, but the name kinda put a dent in our manhood.)

"No thank you," Jasper politely stated.

We wandered over to the elevators when we passed the manager Enrique- a rather nice guy.

"Welcome back Mr. Cullen's. I hope you had a good time on the slopes?"

We turned to look at each other- easily remembering that we never actually went down as we found something else that occupied our time- and chuckled.  
I turned back, "Yes sir, we had a great time," a genuine smile on my face.

"That's wonderful. If there's anything you need, please don't hesitate to ask." He stated and then walked over to another guest ensuring they were being well taken care-of.

_Ding!_

The elevator doors opened and we climbed in, pushing the button that took us to our floor.

*********

When we got to out room we set our snowboards down and began taking off the layers of clothes that we had on.

Emmett walked over to the desk and began dialing his office. Jazz and I walked into the a-joining room and turned on the TV. Emmett's calls tended to take a while.

We started a game and had gotten to about the third level when Emmett walked in, plopping down on the bed beside us.  
"So… how'd it go?" I asked stupidly.

Ugh, he grunted meaning that it was finished, but that didn't mean that anything was accomplished.

"Dude, why do you work for them if you hate it so much?" Jasper asked.

Emmett sat up, "Honestly I don't know anymore. I love being in the medical field, but these 'high-falutin'" Jazz and I snorted at his term, "doctors are so aggravating, sometimes I wonder if they even remember why they became a doctor or if they just did it for the money." I felt bad for him.

Emmett loved working at the hospital, getting to spend time with the 'little rascals' as he calls them, or listening to the stories of the elderly that just wanted someone to talk to. Even though he didn't look it, he was just a soft-teddy bear.

"Look man, I hear ya, but don't you think that you can find the same kind of work with out the jerks, at some other hospital?" Jasper added.

Emmett put his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands, you could see the torment the question was putting on him; he had thought about this question several times before.

"But I can't leave them." Jazz winced at his pain. I paused the game and turned to look at him. Emmett looked up, "What do I do?"

"That's up to you; neither Jazz nor I can decide that for you, no one can. What you have to decide is what is more important, helping the patients you know and love, or trying to get away from the annoying doctors that seem to careless about their own patients."

Emmett took a deep breath, "Your right, the patients." I chuckled, having not said that explicitly, but knowing which one he would pick no matter how I said it. Jazz and I turned back to our game, when his phone started going off.

"Here," he said distractedly as he handed the control to Emmett.

"Hello," he answered and walked away into the other room so he could hear.

When he walked back in he had a faint smile on his face and was shaking his head back and forth.

He looked at the screen and noticed that Emmett was mutilating me in the game, so much so that I should have just stopped, but he needed to blow off some steam- and what kind of brother would I be if I didn't allow him this.

"What's so funny?" I asked jamming my thumb into the button repeatedly; to try and take down Emmett's character- it wasn't working.

"That was mom. She wanted to 'remind' us of our promise to have dinner with them, and that we would meet them downstairs. Oh and that it's semi-formal attire."

"Aww," Emmett whined either at the fact that I had finally taken him down on this round, or the fact that we would have to dress up- or boh.

****

Ready and waiting we headed down to King Salmon Restaurant- an Alaskan sea-food dining- dressed in button down shirts and slacks. I was in mom's favorite shirt of mine- a hunter green Pronto Uomo sport shirt with black slacks. Emmett was in a black diamond check fitted Pronto Uomo, wearing khaki slacks. Jasper was a light blue Pronto Uomo that had stripe pattern to it, wearing black slacks. That's was what our mother had forced us to buy at Men's Warehouse, knowing that we would be going to fine dining; she was even able to force dad into a few.

We met our parents in the downstairs lobby. They had their own adventures of the day, but were staying in the same resort.  
We hugged our mother, Esme, and shook our father, Carlisle's, hand.

"Well, how was your day?" mom began.

"It started out kinda of a bummer," I started, following Carlisle to the restaurant, mom and my brothers beside me.

"Oh, and why is that," she asked with a confused expression on her features.

"Well when we got to the top of the mountain, it was closed off. A young girl had gone missing from her parents after skiing off the trail and into the trees. Her parents looked for her butt couldn't find her. Search and rescue had to step in." As I told the story, my mother's eyes' grew wide and concerned.

"While they looked for her they had the mountain roped off so we couldn't go down. But while there we met the three girls involved in rescuing the little girl; Bella, Alice, and Rosalie."

My brothers and I told the events of our meeting with the girls. We each in turn told of what happened on the ski-doos, as we were not all there to witness; then filled in blanks of the events at the training center.

My mother, I noticed, continuously glanced in my direction, watching the look on my face as I talked about Bella. I couldn't help it, she was an amazing girl, unlike I had ever met before.

Suddenly Jasper's phone began to ring. He excused himself and wandered in the other direction.

"Who is that," mom asked, curiously glancing over at Jasper as his face produced a large grin. I shrugged my shoulders, but my thoughts turned to one person, in effect causing me to smile, _Alice. _

Emmett turned back with a chuckle, also noting the large grin plastered on Jasper's face. "It's probably Alice," he stated.

At the point we had made it to the host desk.

"A table for five please," my father stated politely to the hostess behind the desk. Her eyes grew wide as she took in my father's appearance; then glancing at my mother, my brother, and my self.

To put it mildly, we did not look like the average family. My mother and father looked incredibly young for their ages, both in very good health and physical condition.

My father had the blonde hair that Jasper acquired, with both Emmett's and Jasper's blue eyes. He was incredibly young looking though he was pushing mid-forties. My mother had caramel colored hair and a heart shaped face. She had given me her green eyes, but my hair was passed down from her brother- whom my brothers and I had never met. I had only seen pictures; he too had the tousled bronze hair and green eyes.

The girl shook her head slightly, blushing slightly at the fact that she was ogling, grabbed a few menus and led us to a table.

We sat at a circular table next to the window, giving my mom a wonderful view to enjoy.

As we searched for what to order, my dad spoke up.

"Who was it that called Jasper?" nothing ever got passed him.

"Oh," he started, slightly caught off guard, "That was Alice, the one of the girls we told you about. She was wondering if after dinner my brothers and I would like to get together with them and 'hang out'."

"Oh how wonderful! I hope you said yes." My mother looked radiantly happy at the idea of us hanging out with these girls; it was clear she liked the idea that we finally were 'settling down' or perhaps just liked to see us all happy. The effect these girls had on us after one day was astounding, our own mother could tell!

Jasper chuckled quietly, "Yes mother, I did. I hope that's alright with the two of you?" he asked turning to me and Emmett.

"I don't mind."

"Nor do I." Emmett and I both answered.

"So tell us about more about these girls. What do they do? What are their interests?" the questions from our parents began being fired off. As soon as we finished answering one to the best of our knowledge, they would shoot off more.

"When can we meet them?" mom asked.  
"Um…" we all looked at each other, a mixture of confusion, wonder, and amusement on our faces.

"Don't tell me you didn't tell them about us?" mom asked in a scolding, yet slightly worried manner.

"That's not it, of course we told them about you. It's just that I don't think any of us considered introducing them to you, not that we don't want to, it just never crossed our minds." I answered.

"Oh" was her simple and sad reply.

I glanced at my brothers hoping they would note that we needed to make amends. Jasper quickly recovered, "How about we meet them tonight, and ask them how they would feel about a group event at your request? Its not all the time that on the second day of knowing a girl do we introduce them to the family." He added with a chuckle, my father quickly joining. My mother smiled, appeased.

"That would be wonderful. I'll have to put together a list of things we could do." I chuckled at her as she began planning for a tomorrow that might not occur- I hoped the girls wouldn't mind.

******

After a wonderful dinner of lobster, crab, oysters, and more, my brothers and I headed back up to our room to change into more comfortable clothing.

We got back into the truck and plugged in the address, that Jasper had gotten from Alice, into the GPS system.

Thirty minutes later we pulled into the drive and got out of the car, slamming the doors behind us.

We slowly walked up to the door, took deep breaths, and knocked.

Alice answered with a brilliant smile and led us into a large living room. Bella was on the recliner and Rose was standing next to the stairs, the dogs scattered around the room. We smiled back at them and entered.

************

_**A/n:** i made slight changes to chapter 2 having forgotten what i had the brothers doing for a living- now it makes sense. sorry for the spelling errors throughout the story- i'm doing the best i can. _

_also i keep forgetting clearly i must be under a delusion but for future reference: _

**I do NOT own any of the twilight characters or even thr story itself!!**

_i'll try and put the disclaimer at the top of future chapters- i don't really want to have to go back and fix it. : D enjoy_


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

A/N: sorry it's been over a week- it was spring break for me and I didn't have access to a computer- then school started and I was swamped- so here you go

BPOV

The guys were standing in the doorway with smiles on their faces.

They were dressed casually in jeans and button down shirts. Alice waved her hand, bouncing on the balls of her feet, to invite them in. I smiled gently at Edward, who was staring back at me with a grin.

"Hey guys, welcome to our home. Don't mind the dogs or the mess." Rose said in a friendly tone. I looked around puzzled by her last statement, as this house was hardly _ever_ dirty, and even though it wasn't, we still managed to clean the whole downstairs spotless before the guys showed up. Well Alice did anyways- she had been cleaning since yesterday- I had bugged her about it then but her response was, "I think we might have visitors soon." That just left me even more confused.

The guys wandered in Edward heading in my direction. Emmett and Rose sat on the armchair, Alice and Jasper sat on the loveseat, leaving Edward and I for the couch.

"Well what do you guys want to do?" Alice asked, Jasper's arm was draped across her shoulders, and I could see in her eyes she was beyond giddy.

"We are good with whatever." Emmett replied, moving around Rose as she was currently on his lap.

"What about a game?" Edward offered.

"Ooooooh, ya." Emmett called out with a mischievous look in his eye, "Truth or dare!"

"NO!!" shouted several people, catching poor Emmett off guard, forcing me to suppress my giggles at his shocked face, which quickly turned into a pout.

Jasper turned to Alice, "Well I know why Edward and I don't want to play, but should I ask why you and Rose shouted as well?" he asked curiously.

I couldn't help myself, the giggles burst forth into laughter. Alice and Rose just glared at me.

"Well we have had some bad experiences with Truth or Dare. And Bella need I remind you of the time you had to play- what was the dare you were given…"

I looked at Alice with wide eyes, "You wouldn't…"

"Oh yes that's right, I believe you were told to ski down a hill- in the nude. Oh and what happened Rose, I forget?" both were snickering while my face turned more than ten shades of red.

Edward, Emmett, and Jasper were glancing between the girls and my self, curiously waiting to hear about the end of the story.  
Rose turned and finished the story.

"I believe she landed in the arms of Mike Newton, after very clumsily skiing down the hill, arms flailing mind you, having lost control I believe. Oh and I couldn't forget the fact that Mike was talking to a police officer… Yes that's right Bella Hale was _arrested_ for public indecency!" their laughter filled the air; I shivered at the remembrance of Mike catching me.

Edward was struggling to not to laugh only allowing a few snickers to be released. I slumped into my seat, my face completely flushed. Then my glare got deep as I turned to Alice.

"At least I didn't have to kiss Tyler!" I launched at her, causing her face to burst into a furious pink blush. Her glare was menacing, but so was mine. Rose's laughter hadn't died down quite yet, providing Alice with the perfect opportunity to turn the tables on Rose.

"Hey Emmett you should ask Rose what happened to her on her first time playing truth or dare." The menacing 'Hale glare' was posed to Alice.

"Hey Rose, what happened to you-"

"Don't finish that statement or you will pay." Rose said cutting him off.

"It's only fair Rose, Bella and I both told our horror stories. You should fess up too. Tell the guys exactly _why _you hate with a passion the game of 'truth or dare'." Alice's eyes were full of mischief. I turned to Rose feeling quite bad for her, as her story was nothing like that of mine.

Rose looked at her feet, a faint blush rising in her cheeks. She took a deep breath and began to tell the short story.

"When I was twelve my friends invited us all over for a slumber party. They started a game of truth or dare. When it came to this one girl- who happened to be my worst enemy- she picked me. I being a daredevil and the type never to show fear I picked dare- more as a challenge than anything. I wanted to prove to her that I wasn't afraid of her. Anyways there was this guy at school that I kind of had a crush on. She wanted me to admit my crush…in front of the whole school…over the intercom… during lunch. Needless to say I was terrified, only because of who this guy was. But I didn't want her to know that, so I told her fine.  
I got dressed for school the next day and anxiously waited until lunch. Alice and Bella were to be my decoys to distract some of the teachers so that I could get to the microphone. Bella being her clutzy self was able to fall down and although it wasn't originally apart of the plan ended up slicing her knee open on a piece of glass."

"Which I _still _have a scar from **thank you **_very_ much."

"So a few the teachers rushed over to her and took her to the nurse's office. Alice meanwhile distracted the remaining teachers by causing a fight on the other side of the cafeteria." Alice was beaming with pride at the memory of her accomplishment not that I saw what happened, she told us later. I on the other hand was cringing internally at the memory of the embedded piece of glass- it is still unknown as to how it got on the cafeteria floor.

"I was able to walk over to the counter where the mic sat, picked it up and turned it on. I very boldly said the persons name and told him I had a_ huge_ crush on him. The thing was- he was our history teacher." Her head sunk to her chest in embarrassment, but I knew that she was picturing Mr. Johnson.

"Can I ask what he looked like?" Emmett asked curiosity getting the better of him- as _**all**_ three of us had glazed over eyes and faint smiles on our lips.

Rose sighed, "Oh my gosh he was _gorgeous!_ He was tall and built, not as much as you, but definitely working the muscles. He had short blonde hair that looked really soft and these deep blue eyes that made every girl he had in class go weak in the knees.

Anyway he looked up at me and turned _beat _red, redder than Bella has ever managed, and stared at me in shock. Everyone in the room had gotten really quiet, but I just stood there! I'm not sure if I got lost in his eyes or if I was waiting for a confession from him. Either way about twenty seconds of standing there, reality set in and I bolted for the door, Alice right behind.

Luckily I was able to make it out of the cafeteria without crying and two days later this girl named Lauren became the bigger news as _everyone _found out that she was like stuffing her bra's or something- so I officially became _**old news.**_... There, you happy Alice I told one of the _many _horror stories this family has with 'truth or dare'."

We sat in silence for a few seconds, except for the quiet whispers coming from Emmett-probably comforting words from the peaceful look on her face- when I spoke up "Hey you guys want to play pool or a board game or something."

"Sure." Edward turned to me and said with a crooked grin.

We all stood up and headed in the direction of the game room.

When we got there Alice opened the cabinet doors to reveal all of the games. Rose pulled out the balls for pool, and I turned on the I-pod to listen to random tunes.

We played several games of pool and talked randomly about nothing. A few times Emmett would reveal to us a few embarrassing stories, trying to get us to spill more 'truth or dare' stories. Edward always rolled his eyes and continued the conversation where it had shifted.

The guys seemed somewhat impressed that we knew how to play pool and were rather good. It then became a challenge, girls against guys. Emmett wanted to include stripping but that was shot down immediately.

After mindless chatter and wooping the boys so many times it was bruising their ego, we stopped.

We headed back downstairs when Alice let out a cry.  
"OH MY GOD! Is that the time?!"  
Everyone glanced at the clock, seeing that it was well after 2 in the morning.

Rose turned, "So it's after two what's the problem?"  
Alice turned around slowly, "You forgot! We have a 6' o'clock appointment with Carmen, Eleazer, and the heads of the animal department for the renewal forms for the dogs! Remember what we have been training them for, for the last three months! If they don't pass the test then they are all removed and we lose our job! That and we have to be up in less than two hours to get ready and be there early to warm the dogs up!"

Realization hit Rose and I at the same time. We all looked at each other. Rose cussed and ran upstairs.  
I turned to the guys, "Listen thank you soooo much for coming over. Maybe we can get together again, but we have less than two hours to sleep and this is very important. Our boss is going to be _very_ upset when he sees how little sleep we've had." Alice was running around the house getting everything ready, Rose was gathering the dogs into their crates- who looked aggravated at being woken at such an untimely hour.

Edward waved his hand cutting me off. "Bella we totally understand. Jasper has Alice's number we'll call you tomorrow afternoon and talk about it then. Get some rest and good luck." He said with a genuine smile. The guys smiled too and with a wave walked out the door. I followed behind them to the door and closed it behind them.

"Bella! Focus we have to get ready!!" Alice's scream pierced the house catching me off guard. I jumped into action running upstairs to take a shower and change.

We were gonna need alot of luck if we were going to make it through this day alive.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

A/N: Sorry its short, but i was trying to get something out. And i don't know if that's really true about the dogs and paper work, i'm sure they have to do somehting like that, either way i needed for something to happen so there it is.  
I'm slow going now, so for a confidence booster could you tell me what you think of the story so far- I think its only fair since I don't ask….pleeeease!!!


	9. Chapter 9

Chap 9

_**Disclaimer: Twilight and characters is not now, nor will it ever be claimed as mine.  
**__  
Sorry it took so long to post- __Enjoy! : D_

BPOV

At 5 o'clock we rolled out of the garage, loaded down with training gear, tons of coffee and of course the dogs.

We were all wearing our uniforms and added some make up to make us look refreshed. We bypassed on the sleep since there was really no point- owing to the fact that if we did sleep we wouldn't wake up till that afternoon.

We pulled into the training garage and unloaded all of our stuff. Alice took all of the gear inside and went to the kitchen to start a fresh pot of coffee. Rose went in to set up the multiple workout courses, while I unloaded the dogs and strapped on their bright red vests.

Seth was jumping up and down excitedly, but all the others were serious and calm. Although there was a slight wag to their tales, you could see the different emotions clearly in their eyes; excitement at what they were going to do (mostly Seth), annoyance at being up so early (Leah), and focus (Sam and Jake).

I pulled them into the giant room and hooked each leash to one of the hooks on the wall, so they would not go anywhere. At this point Rose was about completed with the set up, with Alice's help. When they called "Done" Carmen walked in holding a Starbucks coffee cup in her hand.  
"Good morning ladies." She said with a beautiful smile. Eleazer walked in behind her also holding coffee. Carmen turned to the right toward the office, while Eleazer made his way over to us.

"Good morning. I hope you had a good night, cause I can tell by the small bags under your eyes that you didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night." A smirk was hidden on his face, but you could tell from the glint in his eye that he was going to enjoy every bit of this. "The board members will be here in about an hour. They are going to be slightly late due to the roads." The clock read 5:35. We had already been here for twenty minutes.

"Get to work." He called over his shoulder as he walked away.

I turned back to my sisters. Rose was slightly fuming and Alice looked alert as usual.

"I can't believe this! We could have stayed home and _slept,_ if we knew that they weren't going to be here on time!"

"Well we can't do anything about it now. Alice can you bring us some coffee and Rose and I will get started." Alice turned for the kitchen at the same time I turned towards the dogs.

I walked over and unhooked Jake, as he was the easiest to work with in the morning, and with Rose's temper- I _really_ did not want to push her over the edge.

Rose placed a small piece of clothing with the same scent as the piece of the cloth in my hand, in an unknown location to either Jake or I. She grabbed a timer off the hook and went to stand by my side.

I bent down in front of Jake and presented the small red fabric to his nose. He took a whiff and began his search.

I forced him to search every nook and cranny ensuring he did not miss any spot, but urging him on so that we could beat the clock.

As soon as he caught the scent of the small clothing item he barked incessantly. When I came closer to him he backed away and sat quietly, just as he was trained to do. I pulled the cloth from its hiding place and revealed it to Rose. She smiled signaling silently that this was the piece of clothing she hid.

"That was his best time yet." She said sauntering over. I jumped for joy and began playing with Jacob. I grabbed a ball from the toy basket and threw it across the room. I repeated that a few more times, finally placing the ball back in its bin and hooking him back up to the wall with the other dogs.

At the same moment Alice came back into the gym area with three mugs of coffee.

"Sorry it took so long; all the coffee mugs were dirty so I had to clean them. Then Carmen started drilling me on the events of last night." Alice stated as she moved over to us.

"That's cool." I replied.

"What was his time?" Alice asked Rose seeing her holding the stop watch.

"3 minutes and 5 seconds." Rose answered. _**(A/n: random time don't know how long those usually take)**_

I went over and unleashed an over eager Seth, Alice following along behind.  
"I'll do this one." She stated. We all had to do runs with the dogs, so Rose and Alice had to practice doing run-throughs too.

Rose went and hid a different piece of clothing in a different location. While she did that, I traveled around with other objects trying to divert his smell; this would make the run-through slightly more difficult for him. I rubbed my own clothing, Rose's clothes, Alice's clothes, and random pieces of material that we had for these drills, against the different objects.

When we were done we nodded to Alice and she began with Seth running through the course; Rose watching the clock in her hand. If we went over ten minutes we stopped, even though that wouldn't happen in a real scenario- but the point of the trials were to ensure speed and accuracy, if that wasn't happening under ten minutes in a self made environment, it wasn't going to happen in a real emergency.

Seth began barking causing Rosalie to poise her finger over the stop button. We never hit the button until the other person revealed the article of clothing, so as to guarantee precision.

Alice displayed the material and Rose nodded hitting 'stop' on the clock.

"4 minutes and 43 seconds." She called out to the two of us. Alice cheered and began Seth's favorite game of tug-o'-war.

This went on for some time, doing different routines and scenarios for each dog.

At the end of the hour Eleazer came into the room.  
"All right ladies the real test is about to begin. The three board of directors just arrived. They will come in and explain what they will have you and each dog do… I'm not sure why I'm explaining this to you, you know the drill." We smiled at him and giggled slightly, too nervous to really laugh.

At that moment three people walked in though the front doors, dressed in jeans and business shirts. Vests detailing who they were and what they were affiliated with displayed across their front and backs.  
My stomach erupted into butterflies.

EPOV

My brothers and I sloped across the girls' front yard toward the car, smiles plastered onto our faces.

"Well that was fun." Jasper stated once the car doors had been closed behind us, enclosing us in the semi-warm cab of the pick-up.

"Yeah, I hope the girls won't be held up for to long tomorrow, so we can get together with them," was Emmett's supplied answer.

"What if we planned to surprise them with something fun to do tomorrow? You know they're going to be tired tomorrow...er...today…after this whole thing. If we got together with them and did something fun maybe it could get their minds off of it." I stated.

"Yeah!" Emmett shouted in the close quarters, excited at the prospect of a surprise and doing something fun. But usually his idea of 'fun' and mine were somewhat different.

Jasper caught onto this as well when he interrupted Emmett's thoughts with, "Let's keep it somewhat reasonable and tame. Ok? We don't want to scare the girls off…or scare them period. Just hearing stories about Rose and Alice, I'm pretty sure that if we do anything in the way of 'scary' or 'terrifying' they would slug us."

Emmett and I laughed causing Jasper to chuckle along with us.

"Yeah you're probably right."

"What about skiing/snowboarding? Since we didn't actually get to go, and the fact that they live _and _work in the mountains, I bet they know some pretty secluded places to go, or at least good places to go." stating my thought out loud for my brothers to ponder over.

"That's not a bad idea," Jasper retorted.

All the way back to the hotel we coordinated plans for us and the girls.

Once we had reached the elevator a light seemed to have gone off in Emmett's mind as he spoke up in a defeated attitude, "What if they can't make it? I mean they said they had _no idea_ how long this thing was gonna take, what if we make _all _these plans and then they go to the kaputz because the girls can't come."

I snickered at his word choice, _kaputz? Really?!_

But Jasper looked over that statement and replied rather rationally, "At 1 o'clock I'll call Alice, if she says that can't come or if there is no answer we'll continue our plans without the girls and do it some other time. Deal? But let's think positively okay?" Jasper said, staring straight at Emmett.

"Deal." Emmett replied with a huge grin plastered on his face.

We got into the room and changed into different clothes.

Emmett wandered over to the desk where the hotel phone was sitting and dialed his office number, ensuring that no new messages or important meetings were missed.

Jasper jumped and landed in a sitting position on the bed closest to the wall and began scrolling through his newly upgraded I-phone as well.

I strolled over to my black duffel bag searching for my MP3 player. Once located I sat down on the bed parallel to the one Jazz was currently seated on and laid my head restfully on the heavenly pillow, scrolling through the multitude of tunes currently on the system. My thoughts turned to Bella and wondered what she was doing at this point in time. Eventually my head shut down and my world turned black, creeping into unconsciousness.

What felt like a short time later I was being jostled awake.

"Hey man its 12:30 get up and get dressed. We were gonna call the girls soon and see if they have finished. Are you hungry?"

Emmett's massive form came into clearer view as I raised my head up from the pillow that I was laying on, my head phones having fallen out sometime during the nap that I had taken.

I sat up and replayed in my head what Emmett had just said trying to remember if I was supposed to answer. I rubbed my eyes and answered with a thick 'no' to his 'hungry' question.

I took a deep breath and got up off the bed. I drug my feet over to my bag and began rifling through for some warm clothes. I found some fresh ones and trudged to the bathroom, taking a quick shower to wake myself up and wash my hair. I got dressed and exited the small exotic themed bathroom and put my other clothes in my bag.

Emmett and Jasper were already dressed and ready but were currently watching a NBA basketball game between what appeared to be the Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks, glancing at the score in the upper left hand corner confirmed my suspicions. Not being from either location, tended to mean we had no real interest in which team won but it was a game nonetheless.

"Who are you rooting for?" I asked Emmett as I sat down next to him.

"Uh… Knicks. Jazz is goin' for the Pistons." He replied with a serious focused expression on his face. I chuckled at his appearance of determination for the team to win. I glanced at the TV and noted that The Knicks were shooting a free-throw- meaning that their team got fouled in some way, but I missed the reason.

I glanced over to Jasper and he was not paying attention to the screen, but to his phone.  
His eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement.

"What's the matter Jazz?" I asked curiously. I hadn't seen him like this since we were about 13 and he was confused as to why this girl kissed him on the cheek and then started crying, then ran away.

"The girls haven't called or texted. And I've sent at least 2 texts and called once already."

"Dude, they're probably still working, just relax. You did tell Em that if they didn't respond we would just head out with out them, not that I want to, but this is more important than spending an afternoon with us."

He took a deep breath, "Yeah I know, it's just, I kinda expected them to at least answer."

"Maybe they don't have signal," came Emmett's response from beside me. Somehow his statement seemed to make since to me, but Jasper just looked even more confused.

"I mean you don't expect these…who were they? Board members... to have the dogs train in their own environment do you? That kind of defeats the purpose for what they are trying to determine." I looked at my brother with slight shock, impressed that he had reached that conclusion. I turned back to Jazz, "You know he has a point."  
"Of course I do," he said smugly. I just shook my head at him. Jasper sighed and said,

"Well if you guys don't think much of it then I guess I'll call them one last time then we can go."

"Yes!!" Emmett jumped up and yelled, excitement etched onto his face, his hands thrown in the air. I turned back to the basketball game and noted that the Knicks had just stolen the lead with a fantastic 3-point shot, as displayed on the instant replay.

"Ha, Ha! Beat that! I bet your wishin' you chose the Knicks now huh?!" He taunted with an evil smirk.

Jasper just rolled his eyes, "Don't hold you breath, big guy, they'll be behind in no time." As soon as he said that screaming came from the TV, the Pistons laughing and yelling as their players just took back the two-point lead.

"Told you," Jazz said as he got up and went into the other room. I roared with laughter at the defeated look on Emmett's face, as he dropped down back onto the bed. "Oh shut up." He mumbled to me, which just caused me to laugh harder.

­_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

After the game, we piled into the car, having tried unsuccessfully once more to reach the Hale girls, coming to the conclusion that they were unavailable. Either way Jasper was in a slightly better mood than Emmett, as the Pistons won with a very close victory of 110- to 107, but Emmett being Emmett lost money out of it therefore bumping his mood down more.

Our snowboards were strapped down in the back of the truck, and we were bundled up in our gear to prevent us from getting cold or hurt. Jasper, being a military man, had a medium sized back-pack on, full of necessary items in case we got lost or into trouble.

We drove to the top of the mountain where the Sporting goods store was, as well as the Starbucks where we had first officially met the girls. Emmett parked and we all climbed out of the heated truck, stepping onto the freezing ground, shin deep in snow.

We made our way over to the small building beside the sporting goods store, where a mountaineer office sat. We received our wrist bands, allowing us access to multiple slopes and strode off to the nearest one.

We came up to the edge of the cliff stopping to strap our boards to our feet.

"Last one down get's to buy me dinner!" Emmett taunted. Jazz and I laughed.

"What if you're the last one?" I shouted back before he could start.

"I guess I'll buy dinner then." He stated simply then jump started his decent. Jazz and I followed shortly after.

We curved, cut, and sliced our way down the hill, laughing and calling out as much as was possible.

Anyone could see the abnormally large grins plastered on our faces, as we felt the glorious wind on our faces (at least the part that wasn't covered by a mask).

We made our way safely to the bottom, I coming in first, followed closely by Jasper, and ending with Emmett. Jasper and I both laughed.

"I guess you shouldn't have taken so many detours!" Jasper called out to him as him, as he came to a stop beside us.

"Oh whatever! At least I had the guts to swerve my way through trees! What did you do go straight down?!"

"No! I just didn't come face to face with a tree branch!" Jasper gibed.

"That was him!" I cried and laughed so loud a few people turned to stare. "Oh my god! That was hilarious! I didn't know it was my own brother!" I laughed harder, Jasper joining me, as we watched Emmett's face turn into a pouting grimace.

"You just wait; I'll make sure your not laughing later!" He goaded.

"Oooh, I'm trembling with fear." Jasper teased as we laughed and followed a retreating Emmett.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Our day continued much the same, starting at the top, carving our way to the bottom. Teasing, jeering, and laughing every time in between.

At about 8:00 the sun was starting to set making it a little cooler than it was before.

We were at the top of another hill waiting to start our decent.

"Hey, let's be adventurous! Why don't we go though the trees instead and make our way down a little slower, I see some awesome hills for jumping over there." Emmett said. I wasn't to sure about this idea, but didn't want to be called a wimp by my own flesh-and-blood so I agreed as well as Jasper.

We started out slowly making our way through the sparse trees, which quickly became more compact. The closeness of the trees prevented us from going very fast, but we were still going down at a decent speed. We continued staying close together so as not to get separated.

After about fifteen minutes of down hill treading I called out to my brothers.

"Hey where are these hills you saw Em?"

"I don't know they should be around here somewhere. I guess it was farther than it looked."

As we continued, slowing down more each second, I looked up and noted that we could no longer see any sky or any land markers from the top of the hill. In fact all I saw around me were tree, trees, and more trees.

I made the note to my brothers who too began looking around seeing no change in scenic appearance. Emmett came to a sudden stop, forcing Jasper and I to halt rather quickly as well.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," Jasper voiced, his voice laced with concern.

"Well, probably not, but the only way we can try and fix it, is if we go straight down. We might possibly run into a village on the outskirts of the main town." Emmett stated with authority.

"That sounds like a plan. What do you think Jasper?"

"Well we can't do much else." He said looking up from his I-phone. "We have absolutely _no_ signal. So trying to use GPS to get us back, is out."

"Well alright then, lead on, big brother." I said trying to keep my voice light, yet was starting get concerned as well.

We continued our decline through the forest covered mountain, swerving through the multitude of trees that stood in our way. Twenty minutes later Jasper called out for us to stop.

We did as he asked and slid over next to him. He tossed us each a water bottle from his bag. We opened without response and took a swig.

"I think we should take a break, for a short while before we resume the decline." Jasper noted, with a serious expression. Emmett and I both nodded our agreement.

We sat and took slow mouthfuls of water, so as to not make our-selves sick, and simply sat in silence listening to the sounds of nature around us.

With a five minute break behind us we righted our-selves and kept on with our downward slope to the bottom of the mountain.

Forty-five minutes later (according to my watch) we still had not reached the bottom.  
"My god this is getting frustrating!" Emmett yelled not wanting to show his growing fear, which was directed secretely toward my other brother and I. Knowing Emmett as I do, he continually played the part of the big brother, and knew when he put us into a compromising situation. But in most other cases he was able to get us out of trouble easily, unlike the one we were currently in.

"Em, it's okay. We have to keep a level head, otherwise we're not going to get anywhere." Jasper said, with brother and military mode kicking in. Unlike myself, Jasper knew in a different manner how he was feeling, having always had this aptitude for understanding other's emotions (except in some cases when it came to the female gender, he had trouble figuring them out, like most us guys do). I on the other hand just had a capacity of 'reading' people, picking up on things that no one else noticed. (Again except sometimes when it came to women.)

"No it's not okay Jasper! I got you two into this mess because of my stupidity! Arg I never should have made the suggestion, especially when the sun was going down! Now we have _no _idea where we are, and_ no _way to get a hold of anyone!...Ugh and _**now **_I'm hungry!!" He shouted. At this point we knew he just needed to let his frustration out of his system, otherwise it was going to explode in a worse way if we kept trying to console him. We learned that the hard way in grade school.

Jasper chuckled beside me, "Well I can't really help with the first few complaints, but I might be able to help with the last."  
He sat down and whipped his back-pack, off and around to his front, placing it onto his lap. He slid the zipper down the side and pulled out several items. Military canisters.

"Food!" Emmett cried. A few of the packages were military supplies that Jasper placed in our Emergency Kit back home in case of natural disasters or some other reason.

We all sat down and opened the containers, digging into the pre-packaged items.

_**Meanwhile…**_

RandomPersonPOV

I was in the small booth that substituted as an office, lounging in the black leather cushioned chair, reclining with my feet resting on the counter in front of me. The office was small and square, but a long counter/desk area took up the one wall underneath the window, on the same wall as the office door. Behind me were radios, cabinets, and control panels, which would allow me to alert other officers if there was a missing persons report, bad weather, and so on. A small TV was sitting in the corner where two of the walls connected, on top of the counter. My feet were slightly to the side of it so that I could see the screen. The radio was making static noises in the background, but I was focused on the current soccer game on in front of me –US versus Britain- which was currently 0 to 0.  
Suddenly a voice came over the radio reporting bad weather headed straight for our location. I whipped into action changing the channel to the weather station, grabbing behind me for the walkie-talkie, and twisting and turning knobs to hear clearly of whether this was a storm worth reporting.

After some fiddling and jotting of important information, I began relaying the information to the others on the mountain, and the town below.

"Attention all officers, heavy snow storm headed in South by Southeasterly direction. Will hit possibly under an hour. Begin removing all from the mountain suggesting all to reach shelter." I continued with the current wind speed, temperature, and other factors.

I repeated the message to ensure that everyone heard and received the message. I got up locked the door, blocked the window with a large cut piece of wood, and prepared to bunker down myself.

_**Back with the guys…**_

EPOV

We ate a small meal, saving what we could for tomorrow, as we had decided to call it a night and continue our hunt for the bottom in the morning, when we could see clearly.  
"We should dig some semblance of holes so that we can keep warm and keep some of our bodies out of the surrounding elements." Jasper said, supplying his military expertise.

We nodded our heads and began scooping our holes for our-selves close by to each other to supply more warmth. Once that was done, Emmett went to the nearest tree and snapped off several branches to create a fire.

"I'll start it and keep watch, so it doesn't spread."

"I'll take a shift after you, and Edward can follow," Jasper said with a nod in my direction, I supplied my own nod and he continued. "We can switch off every…3 hours, so we can have some semblance of sleep."

Emmett and I nodded, Jasper and I slouching into our current holes and falling into an uneasy sleep.

Several hours later Jasper nudged me and I sat up to take watch. I noted that the wind was howling and snow was falling. Emmett's large frame was slumbering a few feet away, the fire glowing brightly but blowing around in the wind. _Good thing we don't have sleeping bags, they'd have caught on fire by now with the flying sparks, _I thought.

Every few minutes I added wood to the fire or turned a log so as to burn the other side of it. I was cold and in pain from the awkward position that I slept in, but didn't complain, even to my-self.

I kept my- self on full alert to listen for approaching steps, falling/snapping trees, or any other noise that could signal danger.

Almost toward the end of my shift a loud bang, and low slow rumble filled my ears. I quickly went over to my brothers and shoved them awake, not knowing what was going on.  
Jasper and Emmett were immediately on alert turning their bodies around to place a source to the persistent noise.

Jasper quickly turned back to my brother and I horror etched on his features, "It sounds like an avalanche."

…


	10. Chapter 10

Chap 10

**A/n: I know you want to hear back from Edward and the boys but that would defeat the purpose wouldn't it?! But I'll try and hurry so you'll know- **_**obviously**_** they all live happily ever after or whatever- what kind of author would I be if I killed off the guys without giving them any semblance of a chance! So have faith and hold on!**

BPOV

"Hello ladies; my name is John Russell and these two lovely ladies beside me are Bethany Lewis and Ruth Fisher. As you are well aware today we will be running the trials for the current dogs on the rescue team. Now it is my understanding that you three actually own these four animals?" His question was pointed to no one in particular, but Rose answered being the oldest and immediate leader for the three of us.

"That is correct sir."

"I see. Well let's get started then shall we?" he said with a smile; I suppose to prevent us from becoming too nervous…_yeah right!_

The girls and I followed along behind the directors, who had turned and began walking back towards the front door. One of the ladies who was very petite with dark brown hair and dainty features turned back to us. As I recall her name was Bethany.

"We will be doing the mock course outside in an area where the dogs have fewer experience…although according to Eleazer these dogs seem to know the mountain like the back of their…paw?" Her features came out in a puzzled sort of way, forcing me to stifle a giggle. She had a point in her question though, what would you call it when you are using a humanly statement in reference to an animal?

Alice answered, "Yes we have been made aware of the fact." Giggling she ended, "And yes, I am quite positive that if we forced the dogs to get lost they would still know _exactly_ how to get home." Our dogs were just _that_ good, and that's not a boast- it's the truth.

We continued our walk out into the deep snow and cold windy morning, bringing our jackets closer about our necks and faces so as to block out some of the onslaught. At a certain point a few yards away from the entrance, John turned back around and shouted over the howling wind.

"Over there you can make out a guy standing by the trees. He is where you will start with each dog. He will also provide you with the samples of scents for the dogs to sniff out. Also there are bright red ribbons that are being posted around the perimeter of the area, all of the human subjects will be on the inside- if you pass one your out of bounds, don't worry there are no penalties for that, just needed information for the three of you. We have a rather large area set up and multiple people scattered around, mainly for assistance for you if needed, but also to add to the difficulty for the dogs..." When he paused he looked around him, his shoulders hunched against the wind, which had suddenly picked up.  
"I hope this wind won't do any damage for this trial session." John said turning back to us and the other two board members.

"Don't worry sir, it will stop by the time we hitch up the dogs." Alice retorted confidently. The befuddled expression from John, Bethany, and Ruth, was rather funny, but to be expected when you don't know Alice.

Rose yelled over to them, "It's okay she does that a lot. But fortunately for today she is right most of the time."

We went back into the large stone building to retrieve the dogs. The board members turned the other way to the woods to guarantee that everything was as it should be.

Opening the doors the wind howled suddenly, angry that it could no longer attack, and the heating in the main room welcomed us with open arms.

We walked over to the dogs, my sisters a little more gracefully than myself, and unhooked their leashes. I went over to each dog and tightened the vest around their upper bodies, making sure that the red portion was clearly visible. Alice came along behind me and was putting on two of the snow booties, while Rose did the other side. The booties were there to protect the pads on the dog's feet, as they were easily susceptible to freezing.

After about five minutes of preparation, we were ready to roll.

I had Jake's leash in one hand and Seth's in the other. Alice was holding onto Sam's leash and Rose held Leah's.

We trudged through the heavy laden snow, noting that the wind had officially died, yet small flurries were trickling down, making it a beautiful morning for being outside.

As we walked my thoughts turned to Edward and the guys, wondering if they were doing anything fun or at all. I glanced at my watch before we made it to the medium height guy John had pointed out to us earlier. 9:00 AM.

We stood side-by-side waiting for further instructions. We had chosen beforehand who was to go first and it came down to Rose and Leah first. After them would be Jake and I, Sam and Alice, and finally Seth and myself- we drew straws and I got the short one.

"Alright ladies," the guy said having finished a conversation on his 2-way, "who's up first…it doesn't really matter to us, I just have to tell the boss so they can record-"

"Um…we know its okay you don't have to explain." Rose spoke cutting him off, trying not to seem rude to what appeared to be the 'new guy'. "I'm going first, Rosalie Hale and Leah."

"Oh ok." His shocked expression was quickly replaced with a smile and report through the radio in his hand. "Rosalie Hale is up first with Leah….No the dog is Leah…yes sir…" he turned to Rose and whispered, start getting ready. As he finished reporting to the person on the other line Rose unhooked the leash and called Leah up to the starting line, snapping on her own vest at the same time.

"Annnndd…Go!" he called short and quick, starting the watch at the same time.

Alice and I squeezed hands tightly, anxious of the outcome. We could see other people through the dense trees darting about behind Leah, but luckily all the dogs were used to this, as we did it in practice as well.

7 minutes and 51 seconds later the radio announced- "Finished!" Alice and I yelled huge grins on our faces. Okay one down three to go.

I unhooked Jake's leash and placed it in one of the many pockets on my pants. I patted my leg and led Jake up to the starting line, the guy handed me a blue piece of fabric that I brought down to Jake's nose. He took a whiff and nudged my hand clearly signaling that he got the scent. I placed the fabric in one of the other many pockets and waited with baited breath for 'go'.

"Go!"

Jake and I were off.

He ran and ran nose in the air, not needing to stop; I gathered that he knew which way he was going.

After a few seconds he slowed and finally paused nose to the ground. He went over to the nearby tree, sniffed, then walked to the opposite side. As I was about to pull out the fabric he was off again, forcing me to sprint to catch up.

His nose was to the ground in focus and determination. He occasionally would pause at a tree, turn slightly another way and pick up his speed again.

My nerves were starting to get to me, I hadn't looked at the watch on my left wrist to know when we started, but I was hoping it was not as long ago as it felt.

Two turns and pauses later, Jake began barking excitedly. I turned around a tree and found a girl in full gear smiling and reporting the time on her stop-clock.

I ran up to Jake in glee- he had managed to blow Leah's time out of the water and got a 5.16! I grabbed for the sock in one of the pockets on my hip and began playing with Jake.

We bounced up and down turning in circles fighting for the sock in my hand.

The girl turned to me, "Okay if you'll follow me I'll take you to the location they have set up for the finished dogs."

I followed her with Jake on my heels, placing the holy and worn sock in the pocket from whence it came.

With a five minute walk completed, we came upon same pop-up tents, a table, and an area set up with mat, food, and water for the dogs.

Rose was sitting on a bench beside Leah, who was wagging her tail happily at the sight of a friend (Jake), and barking with a little vigor and joy coming through her tone.

Jake wandered over to one of the crates beside Leah's and began drinking sloppily his fill of water. Satisfied he came over to Leah and lied down peacefully on the black mat that covered the thick and wet snow.

"Miss…" I turned around at the sound of a voice and was granted the sight of a tall and slender, man with dark brown hair. "Which of you are going to be assisting the final dog?"

"Oh that's me." I said, understanding immediately what he was going to say and do.

"If you'll follow me I'll take you back to the starting line."

"Okay thanks."

I was kind of bummed that I wouldn't get to see Alice and Sam finish, but we would all share stories later, so it wasn't too much of a big deal.

The guy led me over to a yellow and red Police officer snow-mobile; climbed on first then held his hand out for me to use as a balance to climb on behind.

I grabbed his large tan hand, held on firmly, and swung my leg over the back end. A flashback came to me as I remember the last time I got on…well_ off_ is a better word, and thereby kicking Edward. _Oh what a great start to that relationship!_ I thought bitterly. But hey it was going good so far, for not really being anything.

Between five and ten minutes later we swung around to the front again, finding Seth being held by one of the many people dressed in black today, and stopped the vehicle. I swung off carefully, again using the guy's hand as leverage to my balance problem, and successfully removed myself from the machine with no incident to speak of.

I went around to where Seth was eagerly waiting and detached the leash from its hook on the collar and guided Seth to the starting point.

Much the same as before I was handed a piece of fabric, yellow this time, and allowed Seth to catch the awaiting scent. But unlike the last time I glanced at my watch 10:30- wow time really flew!

I waited for the word 'go' my pulse pounding behind my ears, adrenaline pumping through my veins once more. Oddly though, I was far more relaxed my second time through, even though it was with two completely different dogs.

"Go!" cried the voice from somewhere to my left and before I could get my bearings Seth took off like a bat out of hell; hopefully he was following the right scent.

His nose was to the ground when I caught up to him (he had slowed to reclaim the scent). I followed him with my eyes, urging him on if necessary, but mostly allowing him to do the work. He suddenly darted through the trees again, once more catching me off guard.

I chased him down, trying to maintain steady breathing in the cold environment. My lungs were protesting far more than when I was with Jake, but that could be because he was going slower, who knows.

I found him once more beneath a close nit set of trees, when a flapping caught my eye. Several trees down, a red ribbon was flapping in the gentle breeze, announcing that we were reaching the perimeter of the area. Seth shot off again, luckily to the right running parallel to the dancing ribbons.

Not thirty seconds later, barking reached my ears, quite a distance from where I was. I urged my legs forward and found Seth sitting, having seen my approach, in front of an older man.

Seth's tail was wagging proudly, a grin clearly etched on his face. I looked down at the man who was sitting at the base of a tree and he too was smiling, but at Seth and was speaking fluently through his two-way.

He turned to face me, giving me the thumbs up for approval. I was giddy and started prancing with Seth. I pulled out the ratty sock from my pocket and slung it around for him to try and catch before our game of tug-o-war.

The older man, who looked like he was balding on the back of his head and head wrinkles around his eyes, stood up and brushed himself off,

"Follow me," he said.

Seth and I turned around and followed him through the trees.

"By the way, can you tell me what his time was?" I asked, unsure if they were allowed to give me an answer.

He turned around, glanced at me, than at the watch, then announced, "6.45"

"Yeah!" I jumped and pranced, showing with my actions and praise that Seth did well. Although he clearly had no idea why I was jumping up and down, but if he got praise he was happy either way.

****

At the finish station, Alice and Rose sat waiting, surrounded by three large dogs, all of whom looked sound asleep.

"Shh." Alice giggled, "Don't wake up our champions."

I nodded and continued over to where every one sat. Seth trotted over to a near-by water bowl and slopped up happily. I collapsed into a chair next to Rose and closed my eyes, exhausted after the morning's events.

"Congratulations girls!" John's voice said. I opened my eyes and all three board members were standing before us all smiles. "That was some of the best search and rescue training I've seen in a while, and some of the best times too!"

I sat up straight at his praise grinning from ear to ear. All of our months and years of hard work paid off. Alice and Rosalie had similar expressions of relief and joy.

"We are finished, so if you would like we can put the dogs in the back of the truck and give you all a lift back to the center?"

"That would be wonderful thanks." Rose answered.

I pushed myself out of the fold up chair and went over to the slumbering dogs. I nudged Sam, who raised his head quickly, waiting for instructions. I snapped my fingers and pointed to the cage labeled 'Sam' and he jumper up following orders. I clicked the latch to lock so the cage would stay closed- not that he would get out if it did, but it was just safer that way.

I repeated the same steps to Leah and Jake. Seth was already in his cage, seeing that I put Sam in his. Besides Seth was already in his cage drinking, it seemed like he thought 'Why bother getting out now?'

Two colossal men came over and picked up the cage filled dogs with ease, lifting them into the bed of the black pick-up truck. All the other equipment was placed around the cages or into a trailer parked behind the truck.

When everything was picked up and put away, we all climbed into the cab. The interior was large and roomy. The seats and consol were tan leather with an occasional silver outlined accessory; the back had wide seats and cup holders for all. There were even back seat air controllers!

Rose was seated in the middle, Alice and I taking the window seats. The two buff men were seated stiffly in the front seats, looking all business in their black snow suits.

"Umm, you both look rather uncomfortable. We have enough room back here if you need to recline the seat or move it back or something." I said, slightly concerned for our rigid friends.

The guy in the passenger seat just chuckled. "Its okay miss, we are fine. Just think of us as… taxi driving body guards."

We all laughed.

***

The 'taxi-driving-body-guards' parked the truck in front of the large edifice that was our training facility.

We all climbed out and turned back to grab anything that belonged to us and then turned to the bed of the pick-up. I glanced back noting that all the dogs were placed gently on the ground beside the truck on the snow banks. Many people came up and began emptying the bed of the pick-up with any thing that might belong to the three of us or Eleazer or Carmen.

Once everything was unloaded four large guys- two of which were are drivers- picked up the cages holding our dogs and carried them into the building, the three of us following along behind.

At the door we were met with Eleazer, Carmen, Tanya, Kate, and Irina; all of whom had excited grins plastered on their faces. Max and Juno were nipping along at their owner's heels, tails wagging jubilantly at the sight of their fellow K-9 companions. In my peripheral I acknowledged that Mike, Tyler, and Eric were in the background casually in the entrance of the hallway that led to the kitchen. I ignored them and brought my focus back to the excited group in front of me and my sisters.

The assistants left subtly after placing their packages down. I turned to give them thanks, which they acknowledged, and then bent down to release the caged animals.  
Free from their prison they ran and jumped around the room wrestling and releasing pent up energy with Juno and Max.

"Just think Tanya," I heard Alice start, "In a short while you are going to have to start training for these things too." We all laughed when her smile dropped and her face went pale.

"What not looking forward to having to control Max over there?" Rosalie jibbed.

"Not really. I mean if _Bella and __**Rose**_ can't even keep him under wraps how am _I _supposed to?"

"Oh it's not that hard, just show him a firm hand." Eleazer piped up.

"Oh _really_? You seem like you are experienced in this area. Have _you_ dealt with Max? I'd like to see you put forth your…what did you say…'firm hand'." Tanya supplied and taunted. Smiles and smirks were on every face surrounding Tanya and Eleazer.

I glanced at Rose, sending her a wink. She caught my look and grinned wickedly.

"Fine I will." Eleazer said smugly.

He walked over to where Max was playing eagerly with Seth, a robe caught between both their teeth.

"Max come!" Eleazer called out commandingly. Seth quickly let go, but Max just looked at Eleazer curiously then began trying to coax Seth into playing again. I gave the motion to Seth for him to 'sit' and instead of only Seth following the command every dog did, causing us all to snicker, and then laugh out loud when Max sat about thirty seconds later.

Eleazer tried his command again. "Max Come!" he called more sharply than before.

Max grudgingly came over to Eleazer and sat next to his left leg.

"Max heel," was the next command that was ordered. This time Max followed orders the first time given. We watched in silence as Max followed closely to Eleazer as they swept around the room in a giant circle.

"Max sit." Max just stared. "Sit!" In a very cute fashion Max tilted his head to the side.

'Ugh!' a grunt from Eleazer, who turned back to our group, "He does know the command 'sit' right?"

We giggled- as we were all girls- "Yes," came Tanya's answer.

Max was now turning his confused face between Eleazer and Tanya, seeming to try and understand what was going on.

Eleazer turned back to Max and placed one hand on his back end forcing him into a sitting position while he gave the command at the same time.

After five more minutes of going over the basic commands, which was difficult to watch without laughing, Rose turned to me and winked, repeating the same gesture to Tanya. The three of us had been furiously working with him, so he was warming up to our commands, and even learning a few tricks in between.

Rose separated herself slightly from the group and gestured for Tanya and me to do the same. We slowly moved over to where she stood, directly behind Eleazer, and gave the hand signal for a basic command, 'up'. (We were starting to wonder if Max was partly deaf, as he replied better to hand signals than vocal commands. Tanya and I mentioned this to Carmen so that we could get him checked, but had not been able to since that time over a week ago.)

I smiled when Max caught sight of this and easily followed the command, Eleazer let out a shocked gasp as he was currently trying to get Max to lie down. Eleazer turned back to us with a very confused expression, but quickly turned back to repeat the command again.

Picking up on Rose's idea, Tanya went through the hand motions for 'roll over'. Max wagged his tail happily, dropping to the floor and rolled over every time the motion was presented.

Eleazer's face was growing red with frustration and embarrassment.

At this point Kate and Alice had discovered what the three of us were up to and stifling their laughter with their hands held up to their mouths.

I chanced a look at Carmen, who was suppressing her own giggles, but also trying to show some sympathy for her husband. This caused my stomach to twinge with guilt, here we were trying to explain to Eleazer how difficult he was to deal with, and yet we were now easily presenting hand commands and watching as Max would follow them with ease.

Every time Eleazer would look back at us our motions would desist and innocent expressions would occupy our face.

I was nudged in the rib by Rose, who whispered for me to have Max 'chase his tail'. A trick I taught him just for the fun of it, playing around with the idea that he could be partially deaf- it was one of his first tricks, and one of his favorites.

I began rotating my hand, with a single finger in the air, in a circular motion. Around and around at a slow speed that began to build. Instantly catching my motion Max began spinning in circles, chasing his tail in exuberance.

"Aaagggg!" cried Eleazer startling Max and the other dogs at his outburst. "I give up!" He yelled throwing his hands in the air and storming off in the direction of the kitchen.

As he left the room a roaring laughter filled the room. Tears filled our eyes and arms wrapped around stomachs at the pain that was being caused by the lack of sufficient oxygen.

Carmen walked gracefully over to our small group, which now included Irina, as she had seen out of the corner of her eye my fast hand motion catching on to what had been going on.

A few of us had fallen onto the floor, others were being supported up by someone next to us, and others simply bent over, all expressing our emotion at the hilarity of the situation.

"Ladies, I can't believe you would do something like that!" Carmen scolded.

"But I have to say, 'Bravo', and thank you for proving a rather good point." She stated with a glint of mischief in her eyes. "Tanya, it seems rather clear to me now that we need to get Max a hearing test." She stated, causing a few of us to sober up a little.

Our giggles subsided, a few bursting forth that had yet to be released; that was until Eleazer walked back out into the large 'arena' area, and all was lost to our raucous laughter once more.

***

A little while later, after lunch was served, and our story explained, Alice spoke up after glancing at her phone.

"Oh no, we missed a call from the guys!" she said rather gloomily. She dialed her voicemail and listened to a message left by them.

When she hung up she started, "They were planning to take us skiing!" was her reply to our awaiting curiosity. A round of 'aww' filled the room by the other girls that weren't my sisters.

Alice glanced back down and began clicking buttons. Her head popped up a few minutes later filling us in on their idea to take us skiing to relax after our morning, but it had already been 11:00 when they sent the text and then the call was sent at 12:35.

"We must not have gotten the text or call because we were out of area; I mean even here we have bad reception. Oh well I hope they had fun." Alice said disappointment evident in her voice.

"Wait they went with out you?" Kate questioned curiously.

"Yeah why?"

"Well why didn't they wait till you could go?"

"Well I did say that we weren't sure how long it was going to take, so maybe they decided to have some fun. Besides I think the three of us would have rather them had fun then lying around in their hotel with nothing to do." Rose and I both nodded our agreement- that wouldn't have been fair to them.

After the banter between us girls we went back to our lunch or whatever was occupying our time at the moment. Suddenly a yawn rippled between my sisters and me causing everyone in the room to laugh.

"Maybe we should go home and catch up on some zzz's" Rose offered, Alice and I nodding our reply.

We went back into the main room and fastened the leashes to our dogs. They went willingly along beside us and we all trudged out into the awaiting cold and snow.

Four dogs piled into the back and three sisters piled into the front we left for home.

***

I climbed the stairs to my bedroom, Alice and Rose following behind. I could vaguely hear the patter of multiple paws dispersing around the house, one or two following us.

I pulled on my very comfy cotton pajama shorts and a random t-shirt out of my dresser drawer. I slipped my hair into a comfortable ponytail as well and went over to Alice's room.

"Hey when are we getting up?" I asked, wondering if we had anything planned.

"Well unless the guys call, we don't have anything planned so… whenever." She answered, also intuitively answering my hidden question.

"Okie-doke," was my reply. But before I left for the comfort of my soft warm bed- that I could faintly hear calling my name "_Bella…Bella…"-_ I noted Alice's pouting lip.

"Hey what's up?" I asked Rose coming up behind me and leaned around me resting against the other side of the door frame.

"Well, it's just it's been a few hours since we've heard from the guys, whether actually talking to them or not. I guess I'm just a little disappointed. I wish they texted or called again." She explained voicing her thoughts.

"Well you have to remember #1 they are skiing- you know how much fun that it is and how it is easy to get caught up in what your doing, #2 they _are_ in the mountains and you said yourself that there is bad reception everywhere, so maybe they can't, and lastly #3 they _are guys_, that we aren't dating, do you honestly think they are going to remember to call constantly?" Rose said seeming to put Alice at ease and causing both of us to giggle at her last statement. "So let's get some sleep and we can call them later."

"Okay." Alice responded.

So we slept. Ahhh, the relaxing feeling of a pillow and comfy blanket, after a wonderful day that was not quite over, so why did I get this ominous feeling that something bad was going to happen. _Wow, I sound like Alice now, _I thought.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-


	11. Chapter 11

_**A/n: sorry it took so long. Thnxs for the reviews! ( please keep them coming)**_

***************

BPOV

I was awakened by a very annoying ringing in my head. I groaned and sat up rubbing my eyes suddenly realizing that the ringing wasn't in my head but out loud coming from the table next to my bed. I reached over and grabbed at the mobile phone that sat on the bed-side table propped up next to a white shaded lamp.

"Hello." I said groggily into the phone. I glanced at the clock and realized it was about 3:00 in the morning. Ugh. I hated getting up early.

"Bella this is Carmen. There is a bad weather announcement being broadcasted. I know the three of you have had a long day but Eleazer wants everyone on call in case something goes wrong tonight. Can you get the other two up and ready and be here no later than 4?"

Listening to her I began to wake up and take notice. By the end of her speech I was on full alert. "Yes ma'am. I'll have everyone up and out the door in thirty minutes. Bye" I shouted quickly and hung up, faintly hearing her 'goodbye' before the phone clicked.

I launched out of bed, startling Jake and Seth who were both asleep in the corner.

"Go wake up Rose and Alice." I told them. "Go get Rose and Alice." I repeated. They both jumped up and ran out of the room.

I slid into the bathroom splashing cold water on my face to wake myself up.

Suddenly I heard, "AGGGGHHHH JAKE, WHAT THE HELL!!!!"

I shouted back to her room, "Rose get up there's an emergency! Storm's coming," I called running over to my dresser and pulling out a pair of jeans and then reaching for a turtle neck and sweatshirt.

As I was pulling the shirt over my head I heard footsteps approaching, "What?"  
It was Rose and I can only imagine Alice beside her, wondering why in the world I was getting dressed at 3:10 in the morning.

I gave them the synopsis of what was coming while I continued to whip around the room getting ready. Both boots on, jeans, and shirts in place, I was ready and heard Rose and Alice in their respective rooms running around getting ready in a hurry.

I sprinted out into the hall and almost ran over Seth who was standing in the middle of the hall clearly confused. I whistled loudly calling for all four dogs and continued my run where I left off.

Down the stairs and shuffling in the closet under the stairs, I whipped the dogs into their gear.

Sam was still and in full 'rescue' mode. Jake and Seth seemed to be about equal in terms of stillness and excitement at watching me throw things, trip over those things that were thrown, and what not. Leah was clearly, tired. The look of pure annoyance in her eyes at having been woken was evident.

I bent down strapping on her gear, "I know you're tired, but this is important, people may need us, _kids_ may need us." I said, her mood quickly changed to determination and focus. That was Leah, always worried about the kids.

Rose and Alice vaulted down the stairs with ease and were grabbing our gear and coats, as I put the leashes on the dogs. It was currently 3:27. _Good on timing!_ I thought.

We trudged out into the snow and made our way over to the car. The sky was black, the wind was howling, and the snow was swirling around us.

_This does not look good, _I thought. I glanced over at Alice and Rose and their thoughts seemed to be along the same lines.

**

Rose sped over to the training center, at least as fast as you could with out causing an accident or fishtailing or anything of that nature. We arrived at 3:43.

We jumped out of the big truck, Rose opened one of the back doors and I opened the other. The dogs jumped out on both sides and came to stand beside the three of us. Rose, Leah, and Sam ran around the front end of the truck and made their way to the front doors, Alice, Seth, Jake, and I following along behind.

The door was held open and we all made our way into the building the wind howling behind us. The dogs shook off their coats and the girls and I took off our own coats and walked into the main area.

Carmen, Eleazer, Kate, Tanya, and Irina where standing in the middle of the room. Mike, Tyler, and Eric, where standing off to the side, but for once had serious expressions plastered on their face. Surprisingly Garret, Nathan, and Sean were also amongst the crowd. They tended to volunteer, so it should not have been too surprising, but still I was not expecting them to be joining us.

In the far corner I noticed that all the dogs where lined up, leashes hooked to the wall, every one wearing a matching colored vest and black booties. Sadie, Aqua, Sunny, Oreo, Big Mike, Red, Jo-Jo, and Juno, (Max not being among them because he was not fully trained) three of which were Alaskan Malamutes; two were Siberian Huskies, two being Akita's, and Juno a Bernese mountain dog.

"Wow you made excellent time. Come over here and I'll give you the update." Eleazer said with authority.

Jake, Seth, Leah, and Sam, refused to leave our sides as we made our way over to the group in the middle.

"Okay, now that everyone is here…I received notice several hours ago that a storm was headed for us. Only till about an hour ago, did the police force find it necessary to alert us, and force people to take precautionary measures. But being so late, most were already at home in bed, so the sirens have been going off. The force is afraid avalanches might come of this storm and they are afraid of just how much snow we are going to get, they hope that people won't be buried alive, or stuck inside their homes. We have been put on full alert. As you can see all the fully trained dogs have been put into gear and are ready for anything. I want everyone to stay in this room, Carmen will go make coffee-"

The front door opening cut him off at his words. We all looked around and saw a slightly funny and relieving sight, Billy Black and crew bringing in rounds of Starbucks coffee, all appearing to be larges.

"Hey! Heard there was a storm coming and everyone has been put on high alert. I got some people together and we made coffee, for you and the police force. We need all of you to be fully charged and ready to go." Billy told us with a smile, but a serious tone to his voice. We each took a cup that was handed out to us, slowly sipping the hot contents inside.

"Sorry it may not be what you typically order, but we were trying to be simple."

We laughed and Carmen spoke, "This is incredibly kind of you, thank you _so _much for doing this, and I think we'll appreciate the fact that you brought us hot coffee not so much what kind it is." Everyone chuckled but agreed to her words.

"Well better get going, have to hit the other stations, before we bunker down ourselves."

A chorus of 'goodbyes' rang out from the group.

Sipping on our coffees we huddled into little groups voicing our concerns about the brewing storm.

"Oh, I hope the guys are okay." Alice said suddenly looking at her phone, noting once again that the boys had not called us, her voice laden with concern and worry.

"They'll be fine. I mean think about it, Jasper is military trained and Emmett is a doctor, if anything goes wrong they'll know what to do." Rose said with confidence and comfort.

***

We had been sitting around for a few hours, 6:23, the clock read. The dogs had fallen asleep, as did a few of the group, including all of the guys. Eleazer, Carmen, Tanya, Rose, Alice, and I were the only ones still awake, yet dozing at times.

We all jumped about a mile high when we heard the front door open behind us. In walked two of the most unlikely people I thought I would ever see.

Rose, Alice, and I shot out of our seats and ran over to the unlikely couple, worry etched on our faces.

_Please let them be okay, __**please**__ let them be okay,_ I chanted in my head.

Carlisle and Esme hurried over. Tear streaks were evident on Esme's face; both had terrified and worried expressions.

"No, no, no, no" Alice kept repeating, almost to herself. I glanced at Rose and the terrified look was mirrored on her face. I gulped, praying that they were not here for the reason we all were thinking.

"Please tell me you have heard from the boys?!" Esme cried, tears bursting forth, even without us giving an answer in the positive or negative.

A collective gasp came from the three of us, _I knew it!_

"No," came Alice's small voice.

Esme heard and sobbed into her husband's shoulder.

Carmen and Eleazer came running over to us concern etched onto their features.

"Is everything alright? … Is there anything we can do?" Carmen asked.

I heard an intake of breath, and glanced over at Carmen on my right. Her eyes were wide in shock as she took in the shaking form of Esme.

"Esme?" she asked with uncertainty. My head danced between the two women, confusion on my face as well as others.

Esme looked up at who spoke her name; recognition lit her features as she took in Carmen.

"Carmen?! Oh my goodness! What are you doing here?" shock and happiness filled her voice.

"I work here. Why didn't you tell me that you were headed up here?"

"I didn't know you lived and worked here otherwise I would have."

The two women embraced in a hug. Carmen pulled back and held her old friend at arms length. "Honey, are the boys missing?" she asked with serious composure and puzzlement, a little worry laced within the two as well. Esme just nodded letting the tears fall once more. Carmen brought her back to her and held her tightly. I caught the glance that Carmen gave her husband.

Eleazer ran over to the others and shook them awake. I jogged over to the dogs and did the same.

Carmen's voice carried over. "Can you tell me where they were, what they were doing, anything that might help us find them faster?"

Esme sniffled and took a deep breath, trying to compose herself but just broke into sobs once more. Carlisle stepped beside her, "All we know is that they went skiing on the mountain. But after that I have no idea, we lost connection with them. We haven't heard from them since about 5 o'clock yesterday."

Alice stepped up, "I can confirm which mountain. But like Carlisle, we haven't heard from them, except we haven't heard from them since about 1 yesterday."

Eleazer walked over to Alice with the others following behind, "Which mountain?"

"The one Bella found Bree on, the main mountain. But they could have changed their mind, or drifted…" Alice took in a rattling breath.

"We'll start from there and work our way down. We'll start at the top and make a wide circle around the top of the mountain, each of us taking a section of the mountain, and search down."

"But there is just one problem…The storm… its not over." Mike said, pulling us into a pessimistic state of reality.

"He's right. We can't send everyone into a raging storm to look for people, we will end up separated and lost." Carmen said being the voice of reason.

"But, but… We can't just stand here!" Alice said in growing panic. Her eyes were wide and filled with fear, fear for the one she loved- Jasper.

"But Alice, if we go out there we could end up in trouble ourselves, causing more people to be hunted for." Tanya said rationally.

"SO!" Alice screeched. "We can't leave them out there!" Rose went over to her and took her sister into a tight embrace. Alice sobbed into her blue shirt. My face looked pained, I wanted _so_ bad to go out into the storm just like Alice and hunt down that amazing guy, but 'Ms. Practical' came and talked down 'Ms. I-do-what-I-want-just-let-me-get-my-man'.

_What was i thinking 'my man?! We weren't even **dating**!...But I still want him to be okay...do I like him...Arg! Now is not the time to think about this! Focus!!_ I shook myself out of my confusing and spiraling thoughts and looked around at everyone landing on the leader.

Eleazer sighed and looked at his feet, his brows furrowed in frustration, concentration, and concern.

"Eleazer, I want my son's back, but I _do __**not **_want other people to go missing." Carlisle said simply, bringing his wife over to him. Esme looked up and although there was a hint of anger at his words, I could tell that a majority of her agreed with him.

"Our son's are _very_ smart, they will know how to survive, whatever the circumstances."

At that Esme smiled, her eyes distance, slowly nodding her head.

Eleazer took in another breath and let it out slowly, "Fair enough. Everyone get your stuff together we leave at first sign of it stopping!"

A bustle of events happened.

Carmen took Carlisle and Esme into the kitchen, preparing the coffee.

Eleazer ran into the office and called the police force to notify of the three missing people.

The rest of us busied ourselves with getting the dogs fully into gear, putting our full gear on too.

****

With my thick winter jacket, pants, and boots on, I stood in silence with Jake by my side. My hands fiddled with the leashes I held loosely in my right and left hands, my eyes downcast staring at nothing in particular. My mind was wondering over to a certain person, hoping and praying that nothing was wrong.

Alice was sitting on the arm of the leather sofa with Sam. She was staring at nothing, an occasional tear falling down her cheek or her nose.

Rose was also staring at nothing, but looked fiercely determined for this to work out. She held the leash to Leah.

Tanya had Juno. Kate was holding Sunny. Irina held Oreo. Mike had Red. Tyler was working with Jo-Jo. Garrett held onto Seth. Nathan held Big Mike and Sean had Sadie's leash. Eric was holding onto Aqua's leash.

We would be making a circle around the mountain top and working down, per Eleazer's orders, but we would be within some distance of someone else so that we would not get seperated. It would also ensure to cover full ground as the dogs would in most places overlap searching areas. Eleazer wanted to take all precautions, so we each had in our pockets a walkie-talkie, a first-aid, flashlight, and canteen of water.

At first we would all be packed together and not miss anything, but the further down we went we knew that gaps were sure to be created, so it seemed like it was up to everyone one of these dogs to find the ones who- it seemed- held Rose, Alice, and my own hearts.

***********

_**A/n: I couldn't continue this chapter any further it just kept closing itself- I will try my hardest to get the next chapter out ASAP! I just don't want to force it- next will be the search!**_


	12. Chapter 12

_**Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Twilight. **tear*_

BPOV

The TV was on the weather report, but I was not focused on what the voice was saying- repeating over _again_ what it had said in the last hour.

"Hey it's stopping!" Tyler's voice shouted out to us. My head shot up and my ears perked, listening for any sign or confirmation that we would be leaving.

_Hold on Edward…we're on our way! Please hold on…_

"Alright everyone…let's go." Eleazer stated with authority, seriousness etched on his face. We all moved to the door, except Carmen, Esme, and Carlisle, who would be staying here for safety, waiting for the return of their sons.

Jake moved quickly at my side out in the snow and jumped into the backseat of the truck with Sam and Leah. Seth went into another truck with Garrett.

The train of trucks lumbered their way up the mountainside, coming to a stop in front of the mountain-rangers office.

The ranger came out of the office and began talking with Eleazer. My sisters and I were itching to begin the search. I glanced at Alice, who looked worried and nervous. Rose simply looked pissed that we hadn't started, but I could detect the hint of fear that she refused to let others know.

"Alright, take your positions around the mountain. As soon as you've reached the bottom, stop. If we all make it down the mountain with no luck, we will spread out from there. Understood?"

We all nodded solemnly, a focused determination on our faces- we refused to loose lives.

***

I stood at the brink of the mountain, Jake staring down as well from my left.

Alice and Sam were to the left of us with Rose and Leah to the right. Beyond them were Tanya and Juno, to the left of Alice, and Garret with Seth on Rose's right.

Static came over the walkie-talkie on my hip as Eleazer's voice came over the line, "Is everyone ready? Is there someone that _does not_ have a patch of the boy's scent...?" The line stayed silent, silently informing him that everyone was ready. "Alright let's begin."

I presented Edwards' scent to Jake who took a whiff and bent his nose to the ground. I watched as he scoured the ground around him for any sign.

After about thirty heart wrenching seconds of agony, Jake took off like a shot.

I vaguely heard barking around me, but silenced it as I focused on Jake.

I was running along behind, desperate for this search to end quickly, picturing a _happily ever after_ scene in my head. As Jake started to slow I did as well, pulling out the canteen and sipping the water from the contents.

I glanced at my watch- 15 minutes had gone by.

Jake wandered over to a nearby tree and sniffed. I took in the sight of the tree, it looked like someone had plowed right through it…someone large…_very large_. A light bulb went off in my head. _Emmett!_ I tried not to panic…maybe he did it on purpose…or it was earlier in the day when they were having fun…but why on earth would Emmett _run into a __**tree?!**_ My thoughts wondered as Jake and I continued down the mountain. Occasionally running down, sometimes coming to an all out halt.

Even after an hour no one had called in through the radios to report them found.

My mind began to wander.

_These are the __**Cullen boys**__ were talking about- one's who love adventure and action- why would they be on this hill? This was far to …I don't know…tame?... for them. _I remembered Alice, Rose, and I talking yesterday about where we would have taken them, knowing what we know about them. _If they are __**anything **__**at all **__like what we picture, they would not be here…maybe as a trial run, but not later in the day. _

I grabbed the radio that was dancing with the movements of my hip.  
"Alice…" I called

"Yes…have you found them?!" her voice cried out in panic and urgency.

"No…"I took a breath. "Alice, remember when we were talking about where the three of us would have taken the guys- to match their attitudes?..." I trailed off waiting in silence for her reply.

"Yeah…" she said slowly.

I sighed, "What makes us so sure they are here? These are the _Cullen _boy's we are talking about. They are not ….this mountain is _way_ to tame for them. I could see maybe starting out as like a trial run, but after that they would move on to much more exciting hills."

Rose came over the dial tone, "You do have a point. I can't see Emmett going down this mountain all day, without some sort of challenge in his way."

I chuckled slightly, "Yeah, I've already seen evidence that he made his own obstacle- involving a tree- its okay I think he did more damage to the tree. You should have seen it, it had a nice Emmett sized imprint _through _it."

She laughed. "Yeah that sounds like Emmett." I smiled at her voice- she sounded happy, happier than we had all day, just by giving her some sort of sign that he was having fun- whether it was earlier or not.

"Well what do we do?" Alice's timid voice came over the line

"Let's finish this mountain, then at the bottom meet up and we'll talk about where we think they might have gone." I said, a strategy forming in my head.

I knew that Eleazer wasn't going to allow us to go off by ourselves. And we couldn't sneak away, since_ everyone_ had just heard our entire conversation.

I was still following Jake down the mountain, watching him move from left to right across the side of the hill, searching for some hint of the scent, when Garrett's voice came over the radio.

"You know I have to admit, when you guys said that they were going here, I was surprised." He chuckled quietly, "This is the last mountain I would have come down. Its not that I have something against this mountain, its just I have been down others that were _far _more exciting, and truth be told- those guys _definitely_ look like they enjoy a little adventure." I laughed quietly to myself, thinking over his words- he was right. My own sisters and I didn't even come down this mountain anymore- far to tame for us (more so for Rose).

Another 30 to 40 minutes later we were all at the base of the mountain.

Alice, Rose, and I met up, Tanya and Garrett coming in behind them.

I glanced at Alice, who looked on the verge of tears. Rose was silent and somber- but I could see the hidden fear in her eyes. My own tears escaped, betraying the fear I felt and sadness at having not found them yet.

_Why couldn't it just be easy?!_ I thought bitterly.

"Alright ladies, it seems like you three know these guys better than you first realized. Where do _you_ think they went? I know you guys are scared and worried, but just focus, if you were with them where would you guys have gone?" Tanya's voice said slowly and carefully, she must have noticed how close we were to snapping, which was rather odd since we barely knew these guys, yet here I was growing more and more worried and attached to this green-eyed wonder.

_I guess 'absence really does make the heart grow fonder' or in our case 'missing makes the heart more worried and fonder' _I thought.

"Hmm…Well when we were talking, I mentioned that Emmett seemed like the guy who liked obstacles- as I said earlier- so I thought about 'Doctor Doom'* mountain, since there are so many challenging obstacles and obstructions on that hill he would love it." Rose said.

'Doctor Doom' mountain was a terrifying yet slightly exhilarating mountain edge that had a lot of trees, a ton of massive rocks, and the occasional sudden drop off. I went down slowly, owing to my slight clumsiness I knew that if I went near the trees more would happen than I would have liked. So I stayed on the path like a good girl and went down carefully. Rose however went over large rocks, catching more air than ever before. Alice would swerve between the trees at lightening speed never hitting a branch once.

"Okay, what else?" Garrett asked snapping me out of my memories.

"I mentioned 'Dragon's Bend'*." Alice said, thinking back to our discussion yesterday. "I figured Jazz would like it for the twists and turns and the military significance behind it- him being a history buff."

'Dragon's Bend was not as bad as 'Doctor Doom' in the way of obstructions, but was horrifying in that it twisted and turned all the way down to the bottom. That one I didn't like too much.

"Um… well I wanted to take the guys to 'Pitchfork Peak'* because I figured Edward would like the scenery, especially at the top where you can watch the sun rise. But it is also really steep, and since he likes speed, and that's the steepest mountain around he might enjoy it."

We had gone there once, early enough to see the sunrise that morning, then went down. I liked it because there were absolutely no obstacles, just pure snow, which meant pure speed. Totally exhilarating.

"Okay, I say we split up between those three mountains and search. If these guys are anything like the vibe they gave off the day I met them that is where they'll be." Garrett said confidently.

He grabbed the walkie-talkie and began talking to Eleazer. He explained everything that we had just said, and the idea of what we should do.

By the time that he got off the phone the entire group was surrounding us in a huddle.

Eleazer looked at the three of us, emotion after emotion passing through his grey eyes.

He took a deep breath. "Alright."

"Bella, Tanya, Tyler, and Garrett- you four go to 'Pitchfork Peak'. Alice, Kate, Eric, and Sean- go to 'Dragon's Bend', and Rose, Irina, Mike, and Nathan- go to Mt 'Doctor Doom'. Got it? If_ any_ of you and I mean_** any**_ of you separate, you will be fired so fast your head will spin." Eleazer said in a very serious and threatening tone. I had never heard him talk like that before and didn't care for a repeat.

***

We all climbed into trucks. My group using Garrett's black one, Rose's group using ours, and Alice's group using Kate's silver Dodge.

And we split, going in different directions toward the designated mountain.

The four of us were squished into the front seat. Tanya and I squeezed in between Garret and Tyler. The dogs, Jake, Juno, Jo-Jo, and Seth, were panting loudly in the backseat.

The cab was silent as we drove passed, houses, trees, boulders, and mountain streams. After a while of driving to the twin peaks, my nerves began to come back to me slowly building to a panic attack. My leg began bouncing up and down and automatically my finger went to my mouth where I began to chew on the already small nub of a nail.

Tanya grabbed my hand with one of hers and forced my leg to be still with the other.

"Bella, they are fine. You _have _to believe that." I looked at her full in the eyes and saw the sincerity and earnest plea for me to follow her orders.

I nodded my head; I had to stay strong, if not for the group, or my sisters, for Edward.

We turned back to the front staring out the windshield, watching as the peaks grew closer to us.

^_^_^_^_^_^

APOV

I was seated in the passenger seat with Sam in between my legs.

Normally he would be in the back for safety, but I needed him. I needed to stay strong.

His head was resting on my short legs. My hand was absent-mindedly scratching behind his ears, while my mind drifted over the boys.

Kate was driving her Dodge SUV, the other dogs sitting quietly in the back, while Eric and Sean sat in the window seats behind Kate and me.

Everyone was quite, a new thing for me, all looking out their respective windows- except Kate who was watching the road through the windshield.

I was desperate to know if the guys were okay, but then a voice in the back of my mind whispered that all was going to be okay. A slow feeling of relief washed over me as I let that thought take over.

I sighed and a smile spread across my face, I don't know how but I knew without a doubt everything was going to be just fine.

^_^_^_^_^_^

RPOV

I wasn't too thrilled at having Irina with us, as we didn't exactly get along, but I put that on the back burner of my mind. I had more important things to think about. Emmett.

Oh, I was determined for him to be okay. My whole body tingled desperately wanting to be cradled in his big muscular arms.

I just knew that when I saw Emmett I was going to pummel him, _how could he do this to me? Make me worry like this?!_

I was trying hard not to let my mind wander over the fact that he might not be in the best to condition to just start punching.

I was driving the truck through the wet roads. Nathan was seated beside me, Irina on his right, and Mike on her other side. (Another person I didn't really get along with.)

The dogs were nervously pacing in the back seat. Leah was seated; and I could just tell watching me, ensuring I wouldn't break down here in the truck with two people I didn't want to show my weak side to.

Before we got in Nathan had grabbed my hand that was on the door handle, "Are you sure you can drive?" he asked staring me straight in the eyes to guarantee honesty. I nodded my head and swallowed. "If I feel like I can't handle it I'll pull over and you can take over." He nodded his head and climbed in first. A faint smile took my features at his thoughtfulness. Garrett, Nathan, and Sean, were three amazing guys, which my sisters and I treated like brothers, they reciprocating the act.

I pulled my thoughts out of my memory and focused solely on the road, maybe I would be able to distract myself with that, rather than just sit and ponder the dangers the guys could be in.

­­^_^_^_^_^_^

BPOV

Garrett put the truck in park at the base of the mountain.

We got out and stood before the intimidating hillside, the dogs still and silent at our feet.

"Okay," Garrett started, "We can't spilt up, so I say we form a line, go as straight up as we can, then go up and down the mountain till we've covered every spot. Um…" he went back to the truck and began digging through the aluminum tool chest in the truck bed. He pulled out pink and yellow flag markers and passed a handful to each of us. "Mark trees on the way up so we know where we have covered okay?" Everyone nodded.

"But, how are we going to take them down?" I asked, thinking of when or if we might need them again.

"We don't need to. I have plenty more, and it's not like I can't get more if I run out."

I simply nodded.

We lined up, the dogs beside our right leg Garrett, myself, Tanya, and finally Tyler standing in a row.

"Okay lets spread out some, these dogs can cover the distance. Ty scoot down…farther….more…okay good…" Garrett moved a distance away from Tanya, and then called back to Tanya and me to evenly distance ourselves between the two of them.

We did as told.

We began the ascent up the mountain side after giving the dogs a whiff of the scent.  
Going up I noticed there was a slight flaw in Garrett's idea.

"Um Garrett," I spoke over the radio, "How are we supposed to tag trees when there are only a few?" I said glancing around and spotting only about four in my immediate line of sight, but even those were spaced out quite a distance apart.

"Um…just do the best you can I guess. If you see a tree, mark it as you pass."

"Okay"

The dogs ran in front of the four of us, noses to the ground searching in haste for a stronger scent. They weaved in and out of each others paths, leaving no stone untouched.

It took about forty-five minutes to get up the mountain, having no luck. My lungs were squeezing in my chest at the lack of oxygen, but it was not as painful as it would have been if we ran up the hill. We had been walking carefully behind the dogs. Occasionally calling out a name of one of the boys, letting it echo across the rocks.

The snow was deep and cold, trying to slow us down, but this is what we were trained for. And now, least of all was I going to let it get to me.

^_^_^_^_^

APOV

The group got out of the SUV with our dogs in tow.

I looked over the mountain range. At any other time I would have been jumping with excitement or awed by the beauty and majestic nature of the mountain, but today was not one of those days. Today I was on a mission, a mission to find my love…_love?_..._is that what he is?..._Yes, my love.

We stretched into a long line and made our way up the ridge. Sam was wandering between the trees in front of me weaving between the paths that were created by the other dogs with him. The calling of names would bounce off the trees and would taunt us with our own voices reverberating back to us instead of what we wanted to hear.

I marked the nearest tree, an idea that Kate had, with a bright yellow ribbon, watching as Sam sniffed the scent across the ground and through the forest.

My eyes started to burn, as my thoughts whirled around the guys- my love. I was never before so emotional, even when at work searching for a lost person, but for some reason the idea of losing these three guys- one in particular- was heart wrenching to me.

These three guys seemed to be the highlight of our world, we were all hooked and there was no way we would willingly let them go again.

Sam froze in the snow causing me to pay full attention.

His head bent low to the ground and his lip curled up over his canine teeth. A low rumbling erupted from his chest into a fierce growl.

A glanced up and noticed two yellow eyes and a slinking figure through the trees moving with them.

­­^_^_^_^_^_^_^

RPOV

We couldn't split up so we formed a line to cover one side of the mountain. We would go up then come back down. It was the only way we could think of that would allow us to stay together, but cover quite a bit of ground in the mean time.

I was on the far side of the group Nathan in between myself and Irina, Mike on Irina's other side once more.

We had been going up the mountain for about twenty minutes when Leah caught a scent. Her ears perked up, body positioning itself to go in the direction she was facing. The only problem was that she was facing away from the others.

She shot off like a bullet, me following along behind. I fumbled with my walkie-talkie and relayed a message to the group that Leah caught a strong scent.

Nathan answered stating that they were following along behind- 'just don't stop' he said. So I didn't.

I followed along behind her, hoping and praying that she had caught onto a scent that would lead us to the guys.

^_^_^_^_^

BPOV

We had started back down. Lining up once more across the top of the mountain peak, moving away from where Garrett's path had been, but close enough so that we would not leave gaps.  
At the top we were cramped together, but had slowly spread out the further down we went.

About twenty minutes down Jake came across a wooden board… well pieces of a wooden board. He was sniffing around it. I picked it up and flipped it over and over in my hands. It dawned on me what it was, a snowboard splinter. A sparkle of light caught my eye, when I looked up I found another piece littering the ground. I looked around and found several pieces of a snowboard. My mind went into over drive, a panic attack slowly beginning to take over.

My fumbling fingers found the radio and I called for Tanya.

A short while later she was running up to me.

"What is it?!" she cried.

I showed her the pieces of the snow board in my hands. Her face crinkled into a puzzled expression. As she drew closer, recognition filled her face as she realized what I was holding.

Tears filled my eyes, bursting forth like a dam too full.

She cradled me in her embrace. "Bella, it might not be what you think. None of the dogs have caught any scent of the guys…It could be from when they were having fun…who knows it could be from someone different all together…" but as she said that I began to panic once more.

"Oh my gosh! What if someone else was out here and was trapped in the storm, and then they were swept away in the avalanche, and their snowboard was smashed to smithereens, they could be hurt, and what if it was a little kid?..." My head was spinning, tears streaming, my words coming out in a jumbled rush.

"Bella!" Tanya yelled, shaking me by the shoulders. "Bella, pull yourself together! Don't make me smack you!"

I took a shaky breath and tried to calm myself down.

"Bella, everything will be okay. You cannot break down at the slightest sign that something could be wrong. Think positive. I understand your fear that it could be someone else… the dogs will find them…whoever that may be. Trust them okay?"

I nodded, her words making since in my muddled brain.

"Garrett," she said into the two-way radio.  
"Yeah?" he replied

She sighed, "Keep a look out for multiple missing persons, not just the Cullen's. Bella found a broken snowboard, so there could be someone else out here, or in a positive outlook, someone just doesn't know how to pick up the splinters of their broken board."

She sighed exasperated. It was rather annoying when people-mainly tourists- didn't take care of the mountain range.

I was able to calm down. Tanya went back to where she and Juno were searching, and I took up where I left off behind Jake.

Ten minutes of searching later, Jake stopped. He spun in a circle, following his nose, stopped again, looked up toward the right, and shot off into the trees.

I grabbed the radio at my hip and told the others of Jakes behavior and which way we were headed.

^_^_^_^_^_^_^

APOV

I knew we were in the mountains, and technically this was their turf, but did I _really_ have to come across one of these _**now!**_ This is so 'Bella-ish' that if I weren't in the situation right now I would laugh, but that is probably not the best idea.

Sam's growl was low. I slowly began to back up keeping my eyes locked on Sam, I didn't want to get into a staring contest with a cougar and end up challenging it.

I heard a snap of a twig to my left and a gasp from what sounded like Kate.

"Alice!" she whispered in a fierce cry.

"Shhh" I said quietly trying not to provoke the large animal in front of me.

Sunny, Kate's partner, was inching toward the cat from the left.

I saw Kate slowly moving toward me, so I motioned for her to stay put, I would come to her. That way the dogs would be in front of both of us.

I hated doing that; leaving Sunny and Sam exposed to a giant carnivore that would easily rip them to shreds, but I also knew Sam wouldn't have it any other way.

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and registered that Eric's K-9 partner Aqua was inching forward from the right, head low and hackles raised, Eric behind her.

I wasn't sure if this was good or bad, having three dogs corner a large cat. I called out to Eric.

"Eric!" I whispered in a shout.

"What?" he said mimicking my tone.

"Take a wide arch and come around behind me and Kate. That way you won't be exposed."

"Okay." He said, and I watched as he slowly moved backwards, so as not to draw attention to him self.

- - - -

The dogs were moving backwards away from the cougar, keeping space between the three of them. Kate, Eric, and I were copying their movements.

We continued our pace back, time ticking away. I vaguely wondered how long we had been in this mess. I didn't have a watch, so I didn't know, nor was it particularly important to me at the moment.

I looked at the cat with my peripherals and noted that he (or she) was in a pounce position, staring widely at the dogs in front of him (or her).

It seemed that it wasn't going to move, as it would have to defend itself from three dogs. Yes they were dogs, but it was three to one, numbers always helped.

Slowly we moved further and further away, when out of no where the cat took off in the opposite direction moving at lightening speed.

I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding and stood up straight, relaxing.

Sam came trotting over to me, not sensing a threat. I kneeled down into the snow and gave him a tight hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you" I kept repeating.

"You are definitely getting a bone when we get home." I promised. I stood and noticed that the others were doing the same with Aqua and Sunny.

The dogs looked rather calm and at ease, where as I was waiting to go into shock.

"Guys…hello? Where are you?" asked Sean's voice over our radios.

"Its okay, Kate and I are with Alice, and with the dogs. Alice was almost attacked by a cougar." He chuckled, "Isn't that more of a 'Bella move'?" Eric asked looking over at me. The three of us laughed, releasing pent up energy from the frightening experience.

"You would think." I replied.

Sean came running over to us with Sadie.  
"Is everyone alright?" He asked worry etched on his face, his eyes raking over us searching for injuries.

When he took in the scene and our scar free selves he visibly relaxed. "Okay does anyone want to explain what happened?"

"Later, we need to get back to searching for the guys; even though I have a strong feeling they aren't here."

They all nodded and we picked up where we left off.

^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^

BPOV

I was sprinting, lungs burning after Jake. The snow was trying to pull me down, and occasionally I would trip over something. But I couldn't stop they needed me…someone needed me.

I heard feet sprinting across the top of the snow and watched as Juno sped by at top speed. She was fast, probably the fastest runner of the group, except maybe Leah, we never actually raced them.

I also heard the huffing and puffing of Tanya. I slowed turning around to face her. She caught up to me and we picked up the speed of our run toward the direction of the dogs.

I caught glimpses of movement far to my right and took in the fact that Tyler and Seth were running to meet us. Jo-Jo being faster sprinted past toward the other dogs.

I heard barking in the distance and urged my feet to move faster to the scene of what could have been the Cullen's.

Through the trees were Garrett and Seth. Seth meters in front of Garrett, headed in a direction that was angled toward us. This meant that we were close, the growing noise of the persistent baking confirming my suspicions.

I slowed when I saw a figure in black clothing sprawled across the ground. My breathing was ragged from running, but also from the terrified paranoia that this was Edward.

Jake was sniffing and pawing at the body, having gone quite seeing Tanya and I approach. Jo-Jo and Juno were nosing the body too, but were lying on top of this person.

I looked to Tanya, who had slowed to a fast walk, so was now in front of me. She glanced back, looked to Tyler, who bent over the body and felt his neck.

"They're freezing!..." he looked up "There's a pulse…faint, but still there."

A breath released from my body, allowing oxygen to flow freely again.  
"Who is it?" I asked in a whisper, hoping beyond hope that it wasn't one of the guys.

Tyler bent his head to look at the face. "I don't know, never seen him before."

Tanya went over to look, determining if it was in fact a stranger.

Her face looked puzzled yet relieved. Her eyes found mine, "Its not him Bells."

Knowing this I moved in closer to the stranger lying motionless on the ground.

Garrett came over.

"Tyler grab his arm, Tanya hold his head, Bella help support him; we are going to flip him over." Garrett called out orders and we followed along obediently.

Slowly and carefully we turned over the body.

I looked at the face; a young teenage boy probably about 17 with dark blonde hair and a pale complexion. His face was covered in scratches and his lips were a light shade of blue.

Garrett began feeling along the boy's arms and legs. "Nothing feels broken, that I can tell immediately." He said breaking the silence, a serious and focused expression on his face.

"Tyler help me take off his clothes. We need to get him into a warmer coat to keep him warm. That way he won't go into hypothermia…if he hasn't already."

Tyler and Garrett began undoing the buttons and zippers on the jacket to remove him of the wet material.

Once removed Garrett took off his own coat and put it on the boy.

I took the jacket from Garrett and he gently picked up the body.

I whistled for the dogs, which came to my side in seconds.

"Go to the car." I said, letting them lead us back to the vehicle.

In silence we followed the four animals. Tyler and Garrett switching off carrying the boy down the mountain. Tanya was directly behind me, and I was directly behind the dogs.

I was disappointed that we hadn't found the guys safe and sound, but I was glad we hadn't found them in other respects either.

I was proud of our dogs though that they were able to find this missing teen.

****

Finally at the truck we loaded the dogs into the bed placing the teenage boy in the back. I sat in the back with him, his head in my lap, in case he woke. Juno, being the lightest, was with me, and was lying on top of the boy to provide heat for the body.

We sat in the truck while Tanya and Tyler, strapped the dogs safely down in the back. Garrett was on the CB that was in his truck, reporting the missing person to the rangers.

My window was open as were the two front doors, when I heard a faint echo of a scream. Juno sat up and everyone got real quite, it seemed I wasn't the only one who heard it.

I just hoped that didn't have anything to do with our groups.

^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^

RPOV

­­­I was running along after Leah, horrible scenes trying to take over my brain, but I would quickly force them out with a focused vision of the scene in front of me.

_Tree, tree, tree, rock, tree, rock, tree, log, tree, tree, tree, rock…_I kept repeating to myself what I was seeing fly by around me.

I vaguely registered a dog speed past, assuming that it was Nathan's partner Big Mike, as they were the closest to us.

I kept running not wanting to slow down for anyone.

After ten minutes of running and Nathan having caught up to me, Oreo sprinted by, which only meant that Irina would be somewhere behind her.

I heard barking when Red came into my peripheral vision.

I slowed slightly when I saw the dogs pacing in front of a large rock. Big Mike disappeared, causing my curiosity to spike in puzzlement._ Did he just go around to the other side…or did he go __**inside**__ the rock?...wait __**inside**...inside a rock...__ a cave?!_

I came up to the scene…_Bingo!_ A large cave was embedded in the side of the mountain face.

The entrance was dimly lit, and I could not see any further than where the sunlight stopped.

Huffing and puffing behind us Mike came to a stop.

Irina took out a flash light. Nathan looked at me than at Irina, "I'll go in." he said, gently taking the torch from her hand. Before he went in he turned back to Irina and Mike, "Go look around and make sure there isn't anyone outside, take a dog with you so you can get back to us. After…ten minutes you can't find anything, come back."

They nodded, called to their dogs, and wandered in opposite directions around the cave entrance.

Leah trotted over to my frozen form. She nudged me, clearly knowing that some part of me wanted to see who was in there, but for the life of me I _could not _move.

I heard Nathan's swearing coming from the inside of the ominous cave in front of me.

My legs sparked to life moving of their own accord to the cave. My mind was screaming at me from two different sides- an argument going off in my head.

_Don't go in there?! What are you insane?! _

_But I have to know._

_What if it is them?! What if you see exactly what you've feared this whole time?!_

_But what if its not? Either way I __**have**__ to know that he's okay._

My mind made up I let my legs propel me through the cave, Leah at my heels.

The light from the flashlight was dancing in crazy patterns. It hit Nathan's face which was contorted in frustration, concern, concentration, and….fear?

The light came to a stop, landing on _his_ form._ His_ beautiful face.

_His_ beautiful…pale…slightly blue…AHHHHHHHHHHH!

I screamed a bone chilling scream, which echoed around the walls and out into the cold air.

I screamed at the sight of him lying on the stone floor of the cave, his face colorless…lifeless.

I fell into a heap on the cold ground, Leah right beside me, and cried.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

**_A/n:_ **The mountain names are **_**totally made up**_**! I don't know any mountains in Alaska, so I just made them up- just go with, not too important, but whatever.**

_Aren't you glad I didn't leave you hanging in the middle of the search- esp while Alice was being sought after by a cougar, Rose was heading in the direction of the guys, and Bella was headed in the direction of what she thought was the guys- ya'll would have hated me….but next will be (maybe) taking care of the guys.  
I would still like to know what you think- in the form of those amazing reviews! Please?!_


	13. Chapter 13

_**A/n: Ya! I got it out early! **_

Enjoy!!

***

Chapter 13

APOV

I was sitting in the chair beside the bed, the monitors beeping a steady rhythm in the background.

My mind was swirling, going in and out of focus.

Bella was currently at the café buying sandwiches for the two of us.

Rose would hardly come here, being so traumatized by the scene in the cave- one which I'm thankful I never saw, Nathan wouldn't permit any of us to enter.

The guys were currently lying motionless on their own beds all spaced evenly apart in the large room.

The three of us- well two- would take turns watching the guys, ensuring everything was okay.

It had been a week since Rose found them, yet nothing had changed.

In fact for the three of us, things had possibly gotten worse.

Rose, most of the time was in a catatonic state, crying her self to sleep and waking up screaming most nights. Bella and I took to sleeping with her to calm her down, but even that rarely worked.

Bella had become somewhat of a shell and would get only about an hour of sleep at night. She said she was fine, but I knew better seeing the rather large bags under her eyes. Only a few days ago did she finally decide to sleep here, hoping that that would help. And it seemed to, the bags were slowly fading.

I was not much better, like Bella I was a walking zombie. Easily startled, and quickly falling into sobs. Unlike the other two though I could actually have some sort of conversation and remember what I said later on in the day.

The bustling of the nurse brought me out of my trance. I sat up straight eyeing her face to see any change in features, frown, smile, anything. She put the final clipboard away and left the room. Nothing.

I hunched back in the chair and fixed my gaze once more on the ugly tiled floor.

My mind started going over the events that led up to this current monotony.

_~Flashback ~_

_I was walking behind Sam as he wandered back and forth through the trees. I could still hear the others calling out the names that meant so much to my sisters and I, but unfortunately was still met with no reply. _

_Twenty minutes after we restarted from the cougar fiasco, a scream reached my ears, echoing off the mountains and trees. _

_I glanced at Sam, who stood erect, with ears pointed to the right where the scream seemed to have originated. _

_Sean came over the two-way, "Did anyone else hear that?" he asked, a nervous edge to his voice. _

"_Yeah," Kate replied with the same nervous tone. Eric replied too with a scared, "Uh- huh." I simply replied with a 'yes'. _

"_Okay, everyone let's meet back at the truck. We've covered every inch of this mountain…and I think we should investigate that scream." Sean said. _

_Although I was scared too, I also knew that it could have something to do with the guys. I just hope it was something good, but with that kind of yell, I wasn't to sure. _

_***_

_We drove in the SUV toward the sound of the scream. Sean was on the phone as well as Kate, to whom they were speaking I wasn't sure. _

_Someone sighed in the back. _

"_I just got off the phone with Nathan…they found the guys."_

_His words took a few seconds to register._

"…_How bad is it?" I asked, understanding that they must not have been found in a good way. _

"… _(sigh)…Alice, they are unresponsive at the moment. Nathan thinks they could be unconscious or in some sort of coma…They don't look to good at the moment… I'm sorry."_

"_Don't be, as long as they're alive every things fine…every thing will be fine…its…it will…it has to…" Tears betrayed me as they slowly spilled over onto my already tear stained cheeks, that were red from the cold, sobs bursting from my chest._

_Kate put her hand on mine in a comforting gesture._

"_I just talked to Garrett, they heard it too. The problem is though; they found a snowboarder on the mountain that is currently unconscious. He said the more important thing for them to do is get him to the hospital. He talked to Nathan too and they confirmed to him about the scream. Although Bella wants to go help Rose, she also knows that the kid needs help too, she insisted that Garrett take them to the hospital and they'd meet up with us when the rest of us bring the guys in." _

"_Okay," I said turning to face her. "Can you hurry, Rose needs me."_

_Kate nodded and pushed in the gas pedal. _

_***_

_Kate pulled up next to Rose's parked truck and cut the engine. _

_I scrambled out of the truck desperately trying to find my sister. Irina looked over at me and simply pointed to a hunched figure inside the truck on the passenger side. _

_I ran around the truck to where she sat sobbing, head in her hands. I climbed into the seat with her and wrapped my small arms around her shaking form. I placed my head in the crook of her neck and we rocked back and forth. _

_:::::_

_Nathan's POV_

_The piercing screams reverberated across the walls of the cave. As soon as it began I shut off the light and sprinted over to Rose's balled up figure, currently lying on the cold stone ground. _

_I gently placed one hand under her long toned legs and the other behind her back. I picked her up and cradled her to my chest, trudging my way back to the truck or at least a tree stump.  
I didn't need to call for Irina or Mike as they had come sprinting to us at the sound of the scream. _

"_Stay at the entrance of the cave…Irina gather the dogs and come with me." I gave orders to Mike and Irina who had scared, slightly horror stricken expressions. _

_Irina called to the dogs, who were standing still spread out between the three of us. _

_Mike jogged up the rest of the hill to the cave entrance. _

_Leah and Big Mike were at my heels, Leah continually glancing at the sobbing girl in my arms. Big Mike seemed to just stare ahead at nothing, an expression of seriousness in his dark eyes. _

_A short walk later Irina, the dogs, and I reached the truck. _

_I maneuvered Rose to a better position in my arms and opened the passenger seat door. I placed her on the seat. _

"_Rose, it will be okay. They __**are**__ alive. They are just…sleep-"_

"_You can say it, I'm not a child. They're __**unconscious."**_

_I cleared my throat, "Uh, yeah."_

_I moved the dark blonde hair out of her face and gently wiped at the tears that were slow to fall.  
She looked up and a small smile was on her lips, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Thanks," she said._

"_You're welcome. I'm going back up there to help the guys. Irina will stay with you okay?"_

_She simply nodded and let her head rest against the seat her eyes looking at her folded hands that sat on her lap. _

_I straightened out of my hunched form and went over to the back of the truck where Irina was strapping in the dogs. _

"_Stay with her please, I don't know if she's going to go into shock or what. Just keep an eye on her." _

_She stayed quiet and nodded her head twice. As I began to walk away she patted her leg and took Leah over to Rose. I smiled- how is it that girls (most of the time) seem to know the best things to do for comfort?_

_On the way back to the cave I got a call from Garrett. How I had service out here was beyond me, but I answered anyways and told Garrett of what happened. I could hear him talking to Bella and the others with him. He then told me about their discovery and said they would meet us at the hospital, at Bella's insistence. _

_The second I got off the phone Sean called. For the second time I explained in short what happened. They were on their way, which was good Alice could provide some comfort for her sister. _

_I would have called the hospital and rangers, but Garrett said he would take care of it- since we all knew round-about where each other were. He said I needed to focus on the guys. _

_I made it to the entrance to find that Mike had started a fire at the close to the entrance. A good idea because it would keep the guys somewhat warm. _

_I walked past him and toward the closest body. Jasper. _

_I bent down and began taking off the coat and snow pants to look for any broken bones or major injuries. _

_His body was cold so I took off my jacket and placed it on his icy form. _

_I repeated the steps to the body next to his. Emmett. _

_Mike threw me his jacket so I could put it over at least some of his body. But I knew that wasn't going to do much. What they really needed was body heat…the dogs!_

"_Mike go get the dogs…except for Leah."_

"_Why? You just told Irina-"_

"_I know what I said!" I yelled. My breathing was hard; I tried to calm myself down. It wasn't his fault. _

"_Sorry," he said and disappeared from the entrance. _

_I went over to Edward's body; he seemed to be worse than the other two. Scratches covered his face and neck. Dried blood was covering the side of his face. I pulled out my flashlight and looked through his hair. I found a matted section covered in blood and found the source. 'He must have been hit in the head' I thought. _

_I took off his jacket and pulled off Mike's that was currently on Emmett, it would fit a little better. _

_Other than scratches and Edward's head wound, none of the boys had broken bones or major injuries. _

_Mike, Big Mike, Red, and Oreo came through the cave entrance. Oreo was a little leery of the fire that was thowing sparks in all directions, but slinked around the edge and trotted over to my side. _

_I took a hold of her collar and pulled her closer to me. I told her to lie down and she did so easily. She laid on top of Edward's chest and stared toward the others.  
I'm not sure if they are just amazingly smart or if they are trained or even if Oreo some how conveyed a message, but Big Mike and Red went over to the other two bodies and settled themselves on top without being told. _

_***_

_I don't know how long we sat there in the silence, listening to the dogs breathing, the crackling fire, and the whistling wind, but after a while chopper blades began whirling above us, signaling the arrival of the helicopter. _

_Mike jumped up and ran out of the cave to signal to the choppers where we were, just like we had discussed while waiting. _

_Twenty minutes later several men with gurneys came up to the cave following Mike, Sean and Eric behind them. _

_They lifted the guys off the ground and carried them to the awaiting helicopters. _

_I ran back to the truck everyone hot on my heels, the dogs quickly overtaking all of us. _

_We arrived at the trucks, the girls waiting quietly, Kate and Irina talking quietly together at the truck bed, Alice and Rose sitting huddled together in the passenger seat.  
Sean went over to his girlfriend, Irina, and Mike and Eric slowed behind me. We created a sort of semi-circle starting with Kate at the end of the truck around to Alice and Rose in the cab of the truck. _

"_Sean, Irina, Mike, and Eric, take the SUV and follow along behind us. Let's put the dogs in the back of yours so we don't have to mess with the safety harnesses and stuff. Kate you and I will ride with Alice and Rose."_

_Everyone nodded their heads. Mike and Eric put the remaining dogs in the SUV and climbed into the back two seats. Sean climbed into the driver's seat with Irina in the passenger seat.  
Kate climbed in first to sit on the other side of Rose. I grabbed the keys and started the engine. I glanced into the rearview and Sean motioned they were ready. I looked into the back and found Leah curled into a ball in the backseat. _

_***_

_We drove down the mountain range to the hospital where the boys were headed.  
Our drive was quiet, except for the occasional sniffle from one of the Hale's, I can only assume that the other vehicle was much the same way, unless Sean and Eric were questioning Mike, but with Irina in the car I'm not sure if they would bring it up. _

_I pulled into the hospital parking lot and drove around to the circle drive-thru to allow Rose and Alice to exit.  
Kate followed the girls, and I pulled the truck around to find a parking spot. _

_I circled the small lot and found two available spots side-by-side. _

_I cut the engine and let my head fall onto the steering wheel.  
My mind wandered and I prayed hard that everything was going to be okay._

_::::_

_Kate's POV_

_  
I helped the girls get out of the truck and walked them to the reception desk in the lobby. I angled them to a pair of available chairs and sat them down while I went over to talk to the nurse. _

"_Excuse me; I was wondering if you could tell me the rooms to the three boys that were just care-flighted here?" I asked politely. _

_A few seconds of typing later the woman looked up at me through her dark blue eyes. Age lines covered her face and her hair was a light grey.  
"Third floor, but you'll have to wait in the waiting room for now; they are being cared for at the moment."_

"_Thank you very much," I replied and turned back for the girls. _

_I got them to their feet and guided them to the elevator close by. _

_The ride up was extremely quite and making me almost go insane- almost._

_The waiting room was empty except for the young female nurse that sat behind the desk to the right. I directed the girls to another chair and once again went over to the nurse. _

"_Excuse me, the Cullen boys, how are they?"_

"_Are you related to them?"_

"_Uh…well no, but-"_

"_Then I'm sorry I can't give you any information."_

"_But you don't understand my team just rescued them and-"  
"I'm sorry I'm not allowed to give any confidential information to someone that is not a relative." She said in a more forceful tone._

_Arg, I hate nurses like this! Why couldn't it have been someone that I have seen before after a rescue- like Angela or even Samantha?_

_I huffed, "Fine."_

_I stormed back over to where the girls sat. Alice looked up, "Can we see them? Are they okay?"_

"_I don't know. That idiotic lady over there won't tell me a thing!"_

_I slouched over in the chair and crossed my arms over my chest. _

_Ding!_

_The elevator doors opened revealing a disheveled Esme and Carlisle, Bella and Carmen directly behind them. _

_I stood up and went to Carmen, brushing my hand on Bella's arm as she passed me to go to her sisters._

"_Oh my goodness what happened? Are they alright?" Carmen asked worried. "Bella didn't know but she knew that they might have been unconscious. Is that true?"_

"_Yes to the last question. As for the rest I don't know. That stupid woman over there won't give me any information, even though we technically can if it is our rescue victim." I said exasperated. At the mention of 'stupid lady' the nurses head popped up and her cheeks blushed, whether in embarrassment or anger I didn't know nor care._

"_Excuse me," Carlisle said, letting his hands that were rested on his wife's shoulders fall._

_I glanced at Carmen and caught her eye. 'Doctor' she mouthed. Oh, that explained it, he was going to get permission for us with his connections. _

"_Excuse me, I'm Dr. Carlisle Cullen. I believe three boys were just care-flighted to this location- they are my son's can you please inform me as to where they are and if everything is alright at this current moment." I heard him say in a polite tone. _

"_Um…I…I don't know sir." She stuttered and blushed; I guess she was a little overwhelmed at this gorgeous man that stood in front of her. _

"_Can you please find out for me?"_

"_Yes sir, right away sir," she said and began punching buttons on the phone, the ear piece in her left hand. _

_Before she could start her conversation, a tall doctor with brown hair and scrubs on entered the room.  
"Excuse me is there anyone here in relation to the three boys?"_

"_Yes sir, I'm their father and this is my wife," Carlisle spoke, Esme walking over to her husband as he did so. _

"_Well I have good news and bad news. The good news is that they are completely unharmed, no broken bones, no punctured organs, only minor scratches. The head wound on one of the boys is minor and already sewn together. They were slightly dehydrated and their temperature was down slightly because of the weather conditions they were in. The bad news is they are at the current time in a coma. Now how long that will last is hard to say. I'm assuming that it should last only a short time, but I don't want to make any promises. Other than that they are fine and will be able to do any and all activities they have done in the past."_

'_Whew', was all I could think, although I was a little concerned about the coma part. _

"_Thank you doctor." Carlisle replied shaking the man's hand. _

_With a smile he simply said 'Not a problem.' Then returned through the double doors he entered from.  
Esme cried on her husband's shoulder releasing the pent up tears in relief. _

_Carmen and I went to sit a few chairs down from the girls, who were huddled together supplying comfort for the other. _

_Carlisle and Esme drifted over to the Hale girls. _

"_Thank you so, so, much for finding them." Esme said with sincerity. "I know this must be hard on you all, as you all seemed be getting rather close, but trust that they will be fine."_

_Bella stood and embraced Esme in a hug, "You don't have to thank us. We would have done it with or without permission. They mean a lot to each of us, even though we've only known them a short while."_

_Esme smiled and hugged Bella, "I know sweetie, but thank you anyways."_

_Carlisle smiled upon the hugging pair then went over to Alice and Rose who were still seated. He gave them each a hug, moving to Bella once Esme let go. _

_It was a hopeful sight to see._

_:::_

_(back to) Alice's POV_

_After a round of hugs, we sat in comfortable silence till we knew where the boys would be moved to. _

_Ten minutes later, according to the clock behind the nurse's desk, the same doctor from earlier stepped in. _

"_The boys have been moved to room 242 on the second floor. I've also made sure the nurses and doctors are aware that the two of you and the Hale's are allowed in." he informed Carlisle. He turned to where Carmen and Kate were sitting, "Unfotunately I could not let any others in. I don't know if there will be a big group or not, but they said as the boys are in a unconscious state right now, they want few people in the room because the nurses come and go and yadda, yadda, yadda," he conveyed waving his hand in the air in when he said his final words. I grinned at him; Bella chuckled, as well as a few others. _

"_That's fine," Carmen declared. _

_  
We all stood and made our way to the elevator, squeezing in when it arrived. _

_On the second floor, the room was slightly more crowded, but not bustling with people. The rest of our group stood to the side looking tired and leery. At the sight of us their expressions were of immediate interest and curiosity. I suppose wondering what happened and whether everything would be okay. Carmen and Kate moved toward the group while my sisters and I along with Carlisle and Esme went to the hall way along the side of the nurse's station. _

_At room 242 we came to a stop. I desperately wanted to run in to see my Jasper, but no matter how hard I forced my legs to continue forward they wouldn't budge.  
"We'll wait for you out here, you guys go ahead, give you some privacy." Bella said kindly, I don't know if she said that because she thought it appropriate or if like me she just couldn't seem to pluck up enough courage to continue forward.  
I glanced at Rose whose eyes had gotten wide and her face pale. I pulled my left arm out of Bella's right and put both hands on Rose's upper arms. I wasn't sure if she was going to pass out or throw up._

_A nurse passed and Bella asked for a bucket; taking one look at Rose she ran off in the other direction for a bucket of some sort. _

_Shortly returning with one, she handed the bucket to me. I placed it on Rose's lap, as I pushed her gently into a hallway chair. _

_Carlisle and Esme came out after a short amount of time. _

"_Here honey, why don't you and Bella go in and we'll sit with her. I don't think she's going to want to go in just yet." Esme advised logically. My mouth turned down in a frown and as my legs carried me into the room, my eyes stayed on Rose's still form. _

_  
At the entrance I looked up and found the three boys side-by-side in their own beds. The monitors beeping their heart rates and the iv's pumping in fluids. Jasper was by the window, Edward in the middle, and Emmett was lying the closest to Bella and me._

_Bella moved slowly to Edward's still form. I watched as she positioned a chair by his bed and sat down, her back to me. _

_I ambled over to the Jasper's bed, copying my sister and arranging a chair to stare at his perfect face. My back was to the window and I could now see Bella's face. I said nothing as I watched tears silently roll down her cheeks, my own spilling over at the sight of the scratch marks on Jasper's face.  
I moved the chair closer to his head and reached out my hand, grazing my hand across his hair and cheeks. I sat there silently watching his face and played with his blonde locks, hoping that sooner or later he would smile at my touch or something that would notify me that he was awake. But no, he just laid there unmoving. _

_~ End Flashback~_

I came back to the present when a nurse bustled in, her skirt making an awful rustling noise against her legs. She went from boy to boy to check their vitals, her face devoid of any emotion- it seems the nurses are conspiring against us so we have no idea what's going on. I wish Carlisle was here, he would be able to get answers.

She left the room and left me to my thoughts once more, but before I could get in too deep, a shifting movement caught my eye. I sat straight up staring at the tall blonde before me.

A deep groan came from his throat then, "….Alice?"

Sigh- my angel is awake.

***

_**A/n: Hopefully the next chapter will be in Bella's POV and all of the guys will be awake, but who knows?! **_

_**You know honestly I never thought that this story was going to turn out this long, I thought maybe a few chapters, but hey was I proven wrong! I'm glad those of you that have read, enjoy, and I hope that that will continue to be the case. **_

_**I'm starting to **_really _**like those reviews, so can I have more please?!**_ : D


	14. Chapter 14

A/n: Enjoy!

Chapter 14

BPOV

I stood in the cafeteria staring blankly at the menu board wondering absently what I was hungry for. Nothing at the moment sounded appetizing. _I wonder why?_ I thought bitterly to myself.  
Alice and I, and on a very rare occasion Rosalie, were waiting in the hospital by the bed-sides of the ones we cared about. So far nothing had changed; it's been a week.

At first it was hard to go into the room, but now Alice or Esme had to force me out of the room for at least food. I couldn't find it in me to leave _his_ side and something in me told me he would have done the same if our roles were reversed.

The nightmares came the day after the rescue and got steadily worse hearing the screams from Rose's room. I realized a cure when I fell asleep with my head on his bead holding his hand in mine, the dreams were gone! So ever since I have taken the 'night' shift and came to the hospital to sleep beside him.

Although technically the hospital hours ended at a certain point, Carlisle was able to get permission through his connections, so as such the night nurses knew who I was and what I was doing here.

I was doing better after that, Alice was better than both Rose and I, but she was always confident that everything would be fine shortly. I only hoped she was right.

But it was Rose that we were both worried about. No matter how hard we tried she would not talk to either of us. Alice was scared, as was I.

Alice was under the impression that if she just spent some time with Emmett, then maybe she would work her way out of the depression she is in, but the problem with that is she won't even enter the room. Anytime we bring her with us to the hospital, she sits silently in the hallway chairs waiting for any source of news or confirmation that it was time to leave.

"Excuse me miss? Did you need something?"

A nurse asked snapping me out of my trance-like state. My face was blank and it took me longer than necessary to register what she had just asked.

"Oh, uh, no thank you….wait, um can I get two ham sandwiches?" I asked my brain catching up to why I was even currently in the cafeteria.

Then it dawned on me that this woman did not even serve food. She steered me to the line and retrieved two sandwiches for me, also throwing in two bags of potato chips and two bottles of water.

I went to the register, but the boy just smiled saying everything was taken care of. I was flabbergasted and rather confused. When I asked what he meant he simply responded that Dr. Cullen had put a cover charge for my sister's and I, saying that what ever we needed was to be taken care of by him.

I thanked the boy and walked back to room 242.

Alice's voice echoed toward me through the entrance to the room.

"I'm doing well. You had me rather scared though, you've been out for a week now…" As the realization that one of the boys was awake I almost dropped the food held in my hands, but sprinted in nevertheless.

I ran in and found a smiling Alice standing beside Jasper, who was wearing a grin. Both their heads turned to me at my entrance.  
"Look who's awake!" Alice squealed quietly. My grin grew bigger than it had in a while. I walked over to his other side.

"Jasper! It's so good to see you're awake. How are you feeling, does anything hurt, do you need anything at all?" My smile turned slowly into a frown at the possibility that he could be uncomfortable, so I bombarded him with unnecessary questions.

"Bella," he spoke chuckling lightly, "I'm fine, Alice has already asked me all those questions and the nurse came in right after I woke up so everything has been taken care of. It's okay, just breathe." He said, his words turning into another chuckle.

The whole time Alice just smiled at the two of us, smiling at my concern, his assurance, and in essence that he was awake.

"Hey," a groggy voice said behind me, "Why is he getting all the attention?"

I whipped around to find those Godly green eyes smiling back at me.

I darted to his bed and wrapped him in a hug, at least an awkward hug since he was lying down with IV's stuck in his left arm. I also couldn't squeeze as hard as I wanted because it would probably be a little painful; I wasn't sure so I just took precautions.

I heard him take a deep breath and sighed.

"Mmmm, you smell good." I laughed and started to rise up, but was prevented when he squeezed tighter.

"No, you can't go anywhere yet." He pouted. I sighed in contentment, "I'm not going anywhere," I promised.  
Alice came around to Edward's other side.

"Hey Edward, are you feeling better?" she asked, making me feel rather stupid.

"You have no idea." He replied a smile in his voice. I was glad he liked having me there.

"Hey little brother!" Jasper called from behind me.

"Hey slightly bigger brother." Edward replied, making the two boys laugh.

Alice pressed the nurse's button on Edward's remote, so as to inform them that another Cullen was awake.

"Hey how is our biggest brother?" Edward asked.

I looked at Alice, both of our smiles having disappeared, and we all (except Jasper- as he couldn't see over Edward and I) looked over at the big lovable teddy-bear Emmett.  
In this last week, according to Carlisle he had slowly been declining in health, while Jasper and Edward had steadily getting better.

I buried my face in Edward's chest after having crawled into the bed carefully to lie with him.

"He's not doing well," Alice told the boys looking at the sheets on Edward's bed. Edward's hold around me increased. Both the boys were silent. Alice went over to Jasper.

"Can you tell us perhaps _why_ he's not doing so well? He didn't break anything or puncture anything did he?" Jasper asked.

"I don't know, Carlisle won't tell us much, incase Rose finds out. We just know that he has been slowly getting worse. The only times he seems to somewhat level off is when Rose-"Alice stopped.

I turned to look at her, Edward doing the same. Jasper was staring at Alice with concern.

"So that's why…and she's always been…but then that would mean that…."

"Alice, what are you talking about?" but then it clicked. I swiveled my head around to look at Emmett's large form, then turned my head back around to Alice, who was sitting cross-legged on Jasper's bed, my eyes were wide. "_**No!**_" "Yes."

"Well then we have to-"

"Exactly."

"Well what are we waiting for?! Let's go!"

I jumped off the bed and Alice was off the bed as well retrieving our coats and purses.

"Wait!" Edward shouted.

I jumped at his outburst.

"Would you care to explain your silent exchange?" Jasper finished, looks of confusion were on both of the boys.

"We can't now love. All will be revealed in due time, but first we have to go get Rose." Alice explained vaguely skipping over to his bedside, kissing the top of his head, then followed me out the door.

Before we started our sprint, we heard a vague, "Oh!" Good, it seems the boys might now be on the same wave lengths.

Rose POV

I was tired. Tired physically and emotionally. Tired of crying, tired of screaming, tired of the roller-coaster of emotions, tired of the nightmares, tired of everything I was going through right now. But no matter how tired I was, I was not tired of caring or worrying about _him._

I loved him, plain and simple.

But I couldn't bear to look at him at the moment, the stab of pain in my heart every time I just heard his name was far too much. I don't think I could handle being in the same room with him.

Every time I heard that name, an instance flash of his face in the cave would come back to me, that's all I saw.

I thought that if I focused on the good times, when he was smiling or laughing or watching me, that the vision of him in the cave would go away or at least die down, but no. I can't see those faces anymore; they are just blurs that turn into the cold face of my love.

I know he was alive, that he would come out of this temporary coma soon, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't empty my head of the scene.

I wanted to be comforted, but not just by anyone, by _him_. With his big muscular arms that would save me from myself, from the visions of the cave. But that couldn't happen, he was in coma, he couldn't comfort me.

My thoughts created pain in my chest that forced my eyes to release yet more tears. _Shouldn't I be cried out now!_ I thought, but no, they came so easily now.

Over the years I had come to be known as 'strong' as 'protective and fearless' that 'nothing could bring me down', what would they say about me now?

I was strong for my sisters. Having to take them in after our parents died, wasn't a problem for me, I wanted to help and protect them, ensure that they had someone.

I was protective over my sisters and friends, not only because I was the oldest, but because that was who I was, I knew how to put someone in their place if needed, but also be a shoulder to cry on when the time called for it.

I was fearless because in all honesty nothing scared me, except the idea of losing my sisters, no one could intimidate me I was the one who intimidated.

I was a strong-willed girl and I knew it. I got that after my mom, no matter how many times she would blush, she could still take you down in a heart beat. That was the way the women were in the Brandon family _**(mother's maiden name)**_, that is the way I am.

But why is it, that the day I meet this one guy, he can turn me into a shy, scared, little girl?

No matter what he did, whether it was whisper words that would make me blush, leave the room and make my heart ache, or even enter the room and make my heart go wild, he was able to bring out a side of me I didn't like to show.

And in this last week I have shown more of my inner fears to my sisters than ever before, even when he was awake.

I wanted to be strong for my sisters, but the idea that the one I loved was lying right next to theirs; I knew that I would loose it right in front of them. Unfortunately I had been doing that even when he wasn't in the room or vicinity, I felt like I had let my sisters down, crying in front of them or waking up in a cold sweat screaming over a simple nightmare.

I was vulnerable and that scared the hell out of me.

I sat in my room, currently in the wicker chair by my window, mulling over so many thoughts my head was spinning, but I was not going to do anything about it, it would hurt no matter what I did.

A loud bang echoed through the corridors, feet thudded through the house, pattering feet following, another door banged, but I sat still not allowing any of this annoying noise to effect me, even though normally I would have been yelling violently at whoever was slamming doors. We were taught early to respect our home, but I didn't want to worry about those insignificant things, I just wanted to think about _him._

"Rose!" I heard Alice's voice yelling at me. I felt a tugging at my arms, but I pulled away not wanting to go anywhere, just be in my thoughts were I knew he could find me.

But this tugging was persistent; before I knew it I was in a moving vehicle.

"What's going on? Where are you taking me?!" I demanded. I didn't want to go anywhere and they normally told me if we were going to the hospital.

The two kept silent through my shouts. I caught a few glances between the two of them, but when I demanded to know what was going on Bella would look back over the steering wheel to watch the road and Alice would turn to look out her window once more.

After about ten minutes of my demands and their silent answers I gave up. I looked around but didn't take in where we were, although a few things would spark something in me that looked familiar.

Ten minutes after that we entered the parking lot of the hospital.

"What?! No I'm not going in! You can't make me!" I shouted knowing that they were about to force me into that traumatizing room, with _him._

"Rose you have no choice this time. You are going in that room whether by will or by force." Alice said the Brandon force shining through.

Alice was standing in the way of the back door on the passenger side, Bella on the drivers' side. There was no escape.  
I looked in their eyes and saw the fire behind the brown. I was not going to get out of this.

I bowed my head; maybe I could fake them out.

Alice took my hand, "He _needs _you, and I **know** you need him."

"How can you know that, he's in a coma?" I said to my chest, my plans went out the window at her words, my insecurity back to the forefront.

"Rose," Bella said softly, "Rose please, he's not doing well. The only time he does, is when you're around. It's like he knows your there. I know you don't believe us, but maybe if you just talk to him, tell him about what happened"

I flinched but she ignored it, "release some of your anger and sadness, maybe you can heal too. And trust me when I say, that talking to him, being there for him, really does work." I looked up and saw her smiling gently.

Something was different about her, but I couldn't put my finger on it. But I wasn't too concerned about that as I was the words that she had spoken, they had shot an arrow of hope through my heart; hope that everything would be fine.

"Okay," I said simply. I took her outreached hand and scooted across the back seat out the door.

***

We stood outside the door. Alice and Bella were behind me. I stood on the brink of the door and the hall. No matter how desperately I wanted to see _his_ face, I couldn't get my legs to move.

"You can do this Rose. We know you can." Bella said behind me.

"We'll stay out here to give you some privacy, but just call out if you need us okay?" Alice finished.

I nodded my head not trusting my voice.

I walked into the room.

The first thing I noticed was that the other two boys were no longer in the room.

But that was the least important thing on my mind.

I remembered from the girls' talking's that Emmett was the one closest to the bathroom, farthest away from the window. So as soon as I stepped around the corner I would be directly in front of his bed.

I stared down as his large frame and just drank in the sight of him. He was even better than I could remember.

His dark curly hair was lazily falling in his closed eyes. Oh how I wished I could see those eyes- those beautiful blue eyes.

I took in his features and before I could stop myself tears started to form in my eyes.

I moved my feet to sit in the chair by his bed. As I sat there the tears continued to fall.

After a moments time the tears began to subside.

I stared once more at his form lying unmoving on his hospital bed. I looked at his child-like features that could turn into a beautiful smile, could hold wonder and amazement in his big blue eyes that captured my heart. As I looked at him every little problem, every tear, every worry, every hope and dream, every thought that passed through my head spilled out from my lips to his awaiting ears.

I didn't stop until everything came out.

As soon as I was finished I felt nothing but relief. I could finally look at his face and see the man I remembered meeting and spending time with. I wasn't worried about the fear of losing him or filled with the memories of what I saw in the cave. All I saw and filled my thoughts with were him.

I smiled as I gently grazed my hand across his temple, moving the hair out of his eyes.

I stood and moved to go back out into the hall to get my sisters.

"Hey guys," I smiled as I found my sisters sitting exactly where they said they would be.

"How'd it go?" Bella asked gently.

"Good," I said smiled.  
"You were right, I feel so much better." I told her.

She returned my smile and they both came over to where I stood in the middle of the hall.

"See I told you." She teased. We formed a small circle and embraced.

It was at this time that the thought that I put on the back burner came to the fore front of my mind.

"Hey, where are Edward and Jasper?" I asked, now rather confused at their absence. They, as far as I knew were still in a coma, why weren't they here?

"Oh, um…well they actually woke up about an hour and a half ago." Alice said cautiously.

"Oh my gosh! Why didn't you tell me?!" I yelled, shocked as this was great news.

"Rose you were practically catatonic- no you _were_ catatonic, why would we go and tell you that both of the guys we like are now awake while yours is still in a coma?" Bella told me in an incredulous sort of way, like I was missing the obvious. I found it rather sweet and once more brought tears to my eyes.

"Oh guys I'm so sorry! I should have stayed strong for both of you. And honestly why didn't you force me to snap out of it?" I asked hugging them to me.

"Rose we all were slightly concerned…um, out of it… not quite but almost devastated that are not-yet boyfriends were in a coma. Besides just like us you needed your time, and honestly you needed far more time than either of us just because of what you witnessed." Bella stated once more, once again proving a point.

I pulled them to me, "Thanks," I said quietly into their shoulders.

"So do you want to see them or would you like to stay with Em?" Alice asked sincerely.

I looked back at the door and that's all it took, Bella stepped in.

"Go, you can see them later. Go talk with Emmett some more, spend time with him, just make up for the time that you haven't spent with him this week. We'll explain it to the guys and they'll understand." She said with a smile and a gentle push towards the door.

I sent a smile over my shoulder to the girls and walked into the room where my love was awaiting.

BPOV

I smiled as watched my oldest sister step into the room closer to the one she loved, the one she needed.

Alice grabbed my left hand and pulled me toward the door a few rooms down to room 250.

We entered the room our eyes connected to our consecutive others.

I walked over to the green-eyed wonder.  
"Hey,"

"Hey," I responded a smile already on my face.

"So do you two plan on telling us why you left in such a rush?" Edward asked a smirk plastered on his face.

"I thought you would have figured it out by now." I said a smirk on my own face.

"Well we have our speculations, but we would like the full explanation from both of you."

"Well," Alice started, "I- and later Bella- came to the realization that Emmett, your older brother has a keen sense of when Rose is around. Rose never being in the room, that would kind of be hard to imagine, but every time that we all were here in some form or fashion, you _all_ would improve, including Emmett. But since Rose was hardly ever here, the health of Emmett seemed to just deteriorate, like he was falling apart from the inside." She chuckled lightly, "Just like Rose," her eyes seemed to glaze over and I'm sure mine did too as we both looked over the events of the last week or so.

"Anyways," she continued snapping out of her thoughts, "I finally put two and two together, that when she was here he knew and she was somewhat content, but when apart they both seemed to fall apart at the seems. That and owing to the fact that Bella and I have hardly left your side since the day you were brought in, only leaving to eat and sleep- except Bella who decided to sleep here after a while," my eyes bugged out of my head as I stared at my sister with my head to the side. That was one piece of information I didn't really want Edward knowing _just_ yet. I felt his gaze on mine, so turned to look at him and found a curious and questioning glance come my way, while Alice was giggling on Jasper's bed.

"_Anyways_, we both were here physically and emotionally for you and it seems that Rose and Emmett were not doing the same thing so were affected by it." Alice finished.  
"Does that make sense at all?" she asked.

"A little," Edward replied with his brows furrowed as he tried to comprehend Alice's words.

"Basically, Emmett needed Rose just as much as Rose needed Emmett. We all needed each other to heal, and those two, particularly Rose as she wouldn't come into the room, couldn't do that, so we in essence forced her, knowing that it was for her own good as well as his." I explained simply.

"How romantic," Jasper mumbled only loud enough that we could hear, although I wasn't entirely sure that we were meant too. Edward chuckled at his brother's statement, "That it is, Jazz that it is."

I crawled onto the bed with Edward, wrapping my small arms around his waist and he complied with wrapping me in his own arms.

"So where is Rose?" Jasper asked.  
Alice, who was currently snuggled up to Jasper in a similar fashion as me with Edward, answered, "With Emmett."

****

RPOV

I sat in the chair by Emmett's bed and told him everything about myself, my family, the dogs, my work, and even what happened in this last week. I laughed and cried at certain memories, even laughing till I cried.

At these times, when I laughed, I noted that the heart rate monitor seemed to pick up speed. This egged me on to continue with stories that were funny, even ones that caused me to be incredibly embarrassed.

After a few hours of just talking, I sat in silence enjoying (as much as I could anyway) the time with him. My eyes were focused on nothing in particular, but pointed in the direction of his feet, when movement caught my eye.

I looked for what moved in my peripheral vision, but found nothing moving. Shrugging my shoulders I went back to my random thoughts of nothing, when once again a movement in my peripheral vision caught my eye.

My brows furrowed in confusion as once more I could find nothing that was moving.

The only thing that seemed to be able to move was his hand, but that didn't seem likely.

I stared intently at his hand when a loud noise from the door made me jump out of the chair, screeching in alarm. Around the corner came a very confused nurse. When she took in my appearance, which probably wasn't very good, she chuckled lightly.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to frighten you. The door got away from me and swung back causing the handle to smack into the wall. I apologize." She smiled gently, but a curious gaze met her features.  
"I'm afraid I don't recognize you. Who are you?"

"Um, I'm Rosalie Hale. Uh, my sisters are Bella and Alice. I…uh, well, I haven't really been coming up here." I continued to stutter out an explanation.

"Aw, Rosie that hurts my feelings." A very familiar voice spoke.

I whirled around to see a big smile on Emmett's face, his brilliant blue eyes staring back at me.

"Oh look who's awake." The nurse said in a very cherry voice, much like how women spoke to little kids. I guess you could say it was kind of appropriate due to the fact that he was such a kid at heart.

Emmett stared at me, and I him. But no words came to my mouth. I couldn't speak, I was so thrilled at seeing him awake, smiling at me, but my throat was clogged preventing any form of words from escaping.

All the while in our loving stares the petite nurse bustled from machine to machine to check Emmett's vital signs.

After a few moments she left us alone, a quiet click indicating that she had closed the door for privacy.

"Hey," he said softly.

"Hey," I replied, barely getting out that one syllable word.

My tears of joy slowly spilled over onto my tear stained cheek.

"Come here," he said, my legs immediately obliged easily following his orders.

I came over to his right side standing by his upper body. He reached with his right arm and caressed my cheek gently. He wiped away the tears as I closed my eyes at his touch.

"Don't cry," he spoke, "I'm here. I'm okay now. It's going to be okay."

I took his right hand in both of mine and held it at my cheek, pressing the warmth of his hand onto my face. I never wanted to let him go. I voiced my thoughts and he smiled, "Good, because I'm not going to let you go" making me smile at his love for me.

I stood there holding his hand, he lying there holding my cheek, and we both stared at each other letting the world around us fade into nothing.

I vaguely thought that the others should probably be informed, but right now I just wanted to be alone.

BPOV

Alice and I had filled in the boys about everything that happened from the day of the trials through the past week we had been through. There were times that Edward would squeeze me tighter to show that he was there for me, often when we told about those dreadful days in the hospital, even a few times when we discussed the rescue.

Both of us had cried through the difficult parts, being comforted by those that we loved.

We now were sitting in silence enjoying the companionship, when Alice spoke quietly into the eerily silent hospital room that was only penetrated by the beeping of the monitors.

"Can I ask, now that we have told our story, what happened to you?"

"Well it seems only fair, right Ed?"

Edward smiled and lightly chuckled, "Absolutely."

"But we probably should wait until Emmett wakes up, there are times in our story where both Jazz and I were asleep, so only Em knows what went on at that point.

I nodded my head against his chest. I could agree to those terms, as long as I got to be with Edward I was perfect.


	15. Chapter 15

_**A/n: Wow, I'm so so so so so so so sorry!!!**_

_**I kinda hit a rut, but I think I have some ideas to finish this out. **_

Chapter 15

BPOV

It had been two weeks since the Cullen boys were admitted into the hospital after being found in the horrible conditions.

Rose and I no longer had nightmares, Alice was back to her bubbly self- only a little on the extreme, we were all back to normal- or as normal as we ever were.

Only this time we had three amazing guys attached to our hip- one for each of us.

Rose and Emmett had declared their love for one another a few days after their confessions in the hospital room. The two were a little showy about their relationship, but that was who they were. It probably wouldn't bother the rest of us until it came to them committing 'the act' in places where we could walk in on them. _Shudder._ I don't really want that to happen, if their make out sessions provide any suggestion.

Alice and Jasper were far from showy. They could just look at each other and you would feel like you are breaking in on a private moment. The two had made their relationship official a few days before the guys were released from the hospital. According to Alice, she and Jasper were willing to take things slow; she didn't want to rush into saying those three little words and end up ruining what they had, even though she knew in her heart that she was in love. I understood and didn't feel the need to rush her; otherwise I would be seen as a hypocrite.

Edward and I had become very close these last two weeks and although we too had not confessed our love, we did decide to become an official couple around the same time as Jasper and Alice did (not because they were, but because we both wanted to go to another step).

We were all beyond happy. Everyone around us, their parents, our friends, even people we passed in the street, knew that we were happy and in love.

A few days after Emmett woke up and joined his brothers in their new room, the guys told us about their horrific experience.

Once again we (the girls) found ourselves in tears at the boy's predicament.

After their release we made our way home carefully.

Rose was driving our truck with Emmett sitting beside her in the passenger seat. Edward, Jasper, Alice, and I were all crammed in the back seat. I had my head on Edward's shoulder with my arms around his waist. His left arm was draped over my shoulders.

The car was comfortably silent, each of us just holding onto the other. Even Rose and Emmett were holding hands, a simple show of love. Occasionally Emmett would bring his hand to his face and gently kiss her knuckles, causing her to smile at him.

We reached the house and we all climbed out.

As I stepped up to the front door keys in hand, barking from four dogs reached my ears. I chuckled, _Someone's excited to see us._

I opened the door and was attacked by four dogs. Luckily Edward was right behind me and was able to prevent me from falling backward. Emmett stepped around us and barreled his way through, creating an opening for the rest of us.

With all of us in the doors, we made our way to the living room to sit down. Edwards and I sat on the love seat, where Jake and Seth quickly followed, covering us both in kisses, pleading for attention. Alice and Jasper were snuggled on the arm chair, Sam at their feet. Rose and Emmett were sprawled across the leather couch in each other's arms, Leah lying down at the base.

"You wanna watch a movie?" Emmett asked out of the blue.

"Sure,"  
"Sounds good to me,"  
"Okay,"

Several people answered at once.

Alice jumped to her feet and began searching for a movie in the cabinet of the entertainment center.  
After about three minutes of her searching she produced a movie, but continued to hide it from the rest of us.

"What did you pick Ali?" Rose asked using our nickname for her.

"You'll just have to wait and see." She said in a chipper tone.

After skipping through the commercials on the dvd we finally came to the menu screen, where the options of 'Play' and 'Scene Selections' were displayed. At the top of the screen the title "Step Up" was on display.

"Eeeek, Alice you're my favorite!" Rose yelled, obviously excited over who she was about to get to see 'strut-their-stuff'.

At the same time Emmett let out a wine, "Come on! This is such a chick-flick!"

"Hey," Rose said sharply, "You get your eye candy too."

"Why would I look at her, when I've got you in my arms?" he asked with a smile.

Everyone chuckled quietly while Rose turned around and gave him a big kiss.

The rest of us turned to the movie and began to watch, until the moans and noises from the couch beside us got a little to noisy.  
Edward and Jasper smiled at each other, reached for a pillow, and threw it at the two on the sofa, hitting Emmett squarely in the head.

He never released, instead displaying a rather rude gesture to the room.

"Rose, why don't you take it to your room? I would think that it would be a little more comfortable."

She resurfaced pulling Emmett with her. He picked her up wrapping her legs around his stomach. With her head on his shoulder they walked up the stairs to her room, leaving us sitting in the room with a movie playing.

I was laying across Edwards lap with my head on the armrest. We sat and stared at each other, completely ignoring the television, while he played with my hair.

"Hey,"

I smiled, "Hey,"

"I was thinking, since we became a couple we haven't actually been on a date…Would you like to go on a date?"

"Really?!" I asked quietly, yet excitedly.

"Yeah," he replied with a growing smile.

"I would love to."

"Okay." He said, his crooked grin melting my insides.

"Well, what would we be doing on this date?" I asked.

"That's for me to know and you to find out…when it happens." His smirk was in place as he brushed my nose with his.

"Hey Bells," Alice's voice broke through.

"Yes?" I asked, refusing to break my contact with Edward.

"I hear your going on a date, you know what that means?"

I continued to stare at Edward, his gaze piercing right to my core. He chuckled, "Are you going to answer?" I shook my head to rid myself of the fog, "Huh?"

He nodded towards Alice behind us. I looked over to Alice, who was smirking at me.  
"What?" I asked with a sheepish smile. I added a sorry when she looked at me with a glaring smile.

"You are going to go on a date with Edward." She said slowly as if she was talking to a five year old. "That means…" she trailed off suggestively.  
I looked at her, "Oh no. No, no, no, no, no."

I climbed off of Edward's lap, moving to where I was behind him. Alice stood, a mischievious grin plastered on her over excited face. Jasper was all grins behind her in the chair. Edward stood, "Alice, I never actually said _when_ the date was going to be, so why are you going to get her ready now?"

The look on Alice's face was comical, "What's wrong with tonight? Huh? You wanted to go on a date, why wait? Tonight will be great," she said her smile growing bigger with each statement.

"_Please_ Alice, I _really, __**really**_, don't want to have to go through one of your 'Make-Over- Bella-Barbie-Times'."

She lowered her head and looked at me between her eye lashes, her lip slowly protruding out further from her mouth.

"Oh no," I whined, "Not the face, please anything but the face, don't do the face."

No matter my pleas her lip continued to stick further and further out, while she quietly added in sniffles, for effect. "Please?" she quietly asked.

I looked at her and I broke.

"Fine," I said reluctantly.  
Her piercing squeal was heard through the entire house.

She ran around the chair and pulled me into a bone-crushing hug. Never underestimate the strength of someone as small as Alice.

I laughed and pulled her away from me so I could breathe, "So boyfriend of mine, when are we going on this date of ours?" I asked a smile on my face.

He chuckled, "Whenever you want."

"Tonight it is," Alice answered before I could say a word.

"Alice, love, I think that Bella should be the one to answer, not you, this is their date." Jasper stated.

"But Jazzy, she could say next week and then I wont get to do her make over." She said in a whiny voice.

"Its fine," I answered, "As long as it's okay with you Edward?"

He shook his head while saying we could go whenever I wished, a smile dancing on his lips.

I clapped my hands together once, looking at Alice.  
"Alright, let's get this over with." As soon as I said it, I knew those were the wrong words to say.  
"Bella, this is not just something to do, not just something to 'get over with'," the entire way up the stairs I received a lecture on the true value of 'makeovers'.

Upstairs, Alice was rummaging through my closet, looking for the 'perfect outfit'. After about five minutes of searching she came back into my room with a black dress.

"Okay, go take a shower." She ordered, refusing to let me see the dress she had picked.

I finished my shower twenty minutes later and came back into my room.

"Quick, put on the dress, but don't look in the mirror until I'm done with you." Alice demanded. With the dress on, she pushed me into a chair next to her wide collection of hair products.

She took her curling irons and placed the ends of my hair in large curls, parting my hair in a zig-zag pattern. She added a simple layer of eye shadow and lip gloss.

"Okay, now you can look," her smile was big as she turned me to the mirror on the closet door.

The dress was just above the knee with a plunging v-neckline. At my natural waist was a silver cummerbund that held a rhinestone brooch. The shoulder also had 'flirty-little-ties' according to Alice, that fell down my bare arm. The shoes she pushed at me were black 4 ½ inch stiletto mini-platform pumps that had lace detail around the shoe, with a small bow on top of the toe.

I went into the closet found a knee length black wool coat and a silver clutch. I grabbed my phone, liscense, keys, and some money and descended down the stairs.

I had to admit on my way down that I looked great, but I knew that if I told that to Alice she would feel it her mission to make me over everyday.

When I came into view of the living room, Jasper looked up. A smile reached his face, he turned and elbowed Edward in the ribs.

"Ow! Dude, what was that for?" he cried.

I chuckled, which got his attention.

He turned around sharply and stared open-mouthed at me. I took that as a good sign and continued carefully my strut down the stairs, praying that I wouldn't fall on my face.

At the last stair Edward grasped my hand and whispered to me, "You look absolutely stunning."

My blush crept up at his words, a smile on my face, I ducked my head.

His fingers gently took hold of my chin, "Don't hide from me,"

"Come on," he said as he placed my hand in the crook of his arm, linking us arm in arm.

We walked out the front doors. Just as it was about to close behind us, I heard Alice saying to Jasper, "They're so cute."

With the door closed I looked ahead to the cars and then noticed one problem, snow, and _lots of it._

"Um, Edward?"

"Don't worry love," he said as he swooped me into his arms, just like a groom carries his new bride, carried me to the truck.

*****

**_A/n: again sorry about the wait- i'll have the next part up in no time! That's a promise! (most likely tonight)_**


	16. Chapter 16

_**A/n: Here it is just like I promised!**_

Chapter 16

BPOV

The ride was quiet but comfortable.

Edward had gotten the keys from Alice to our truck, since the guys truck was still at the hotel with their parents.

The radio was playing my Clair De'Lune CD in the silence.

"So where are we going?" I asked.

"Well, I thought about one place, but since this is so spur of the moment, I decided on another." Edward answered.

"Well that was an answer, but not exactly the one I wanted."

He chuckled, "You will just have to wait and see. It's a surprise."

"But I don't like surprises," I said, suppressing a groan.

"I'm well aware of that, but just for me, can you put that aside?" he asked glancing at me briefly, his eyes smoldering in the darkness.

"Alright," I said breathlessly.

***

At one turn I knew instantly where we would be going. At the end of the road was the enormous hotel that the Cullen's were staying at, The Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge.

I chuckled quietly at the name, thinking of three handsome guys staying at this hotel. Emmett just did not strike me as the type to want to stay here, but I knew the boy's did not exactly get a say in the selection. Yet then again, I counted my blessings knowing that they could have easily stayed some where completley different and no of us would have ever met.

My sisters and I had wanted to go here just to look around, but never really found the time with work and training.

The place was a like a large cabin in the middle of the mountains and beautiful forest.

We drove up to the front and a bellboy ran over to the driver's side, while another ran to my door. Both doors were opened and Edward and I got out.

"Good evening Mr. Cullen," I heard one of the bellhops say. He took the keys and drove away.

I turned to Edward, "If there is so much as a scratch, Rose will find him and kill him." I stated with a serious tone, slightly tinged with worry for the poor soul who ever got in the way of an angry Rose.

"It will be fine. Trust me."

He took my hand and led us into the hotel. An older man came out of nowhere, "Mr. Cullen welcome back it has been a while since we have seen you or your brothers. I hope all is well. Is there anything we can do for you here at the Lodge?"

"Hello Enrique. Yes we are all quite well," he turned to me and smiled, "And now we each have beautiful amazing girls by our sides so we are even better." I smiled at Edward, his emerald eyes boring into mine, revealing nothing but love.

"That is wonderful news." Enrique said.

"Actually Enrique," he started turning back to the man, "My girlfriend and I were hoping to have dinner here. Can we have a table set up, preferably near the deck and piano?" Edward asked.

My face was puzzled. _What does he have up his sleeve?_ I thought.

"Right away sir." The man smiled and turned around fulfilling orders.

Edward turned to me, "That's Enrique –"

"I gathered that," I said cutting him off with a smile.

"He's the manager." He finished a smirk on his lips.

"Ah, I should have known, I mean with the tag and all, it just wasn't that obvious until you explained it, thank you." I tried not to laugh. I had seen the name tag on his suit jacket while he was talking to Edward, telling me his name and rank.

"Alright, miss smarty-pants," Edward grabbed me around the waist and started to tickle me. I was gasping for air when he whispered in my ear, "I'll get you back for that."

The many underlying statements in that statement was astounding and made my knees go weak; luckily Edward still had his arms around my waist.

Edward led me over to a set of double doors in the large lobby.

When he opened the doors the sight was astounding, my breath hitched at the beauty. The sun was going down so the lights on the deck were on, lighting up several tables. Shadows hit at different angels hitting the rocks, trees, and creek lighting it up in a picture perfect scene. The snow covered the ground elegantly. The suns pink and orange ray's cast a beautiful scene in front of us.

I leaned against the railing. Edward came up behind me and rested his head on my shoulder.

We enjoyed the silence as we watched the sun set behind the mountains.

"Excuse me Mr. Cullen," a female voice said quietly behind us.  
We turned around to see a brunette girl, around the same age and height as I was, except her hair was straight.

"Oh hello Angela," Edward said in a friendly tone.

"Your table is ready for you now. Just follow me." She said with a small smile.

Edward took my hand and we followed along behind the girl.

A short while later we reached a circular table that had a place setting for two, lit by a solitary candle. A rose was lying across one of the place settings.

A waiter pulled out the chair on the right. Edward led me over to the chair that was being held out.

I sat down and the waiter assisted me out of my jacket, leaving my arms bare. I heard an intake of breath across from me and looked up to find Edward staring at me once more. His eyes were filled with something I couldn't name, but had me blushing all the same.

"Enjoy," the girl Angela said with a smile and walked away, leaving Edward and I alone.

A man walked up with a pad in hand.  
"Good evening. My name is Kyle I will be your waiter tonight. Can I start you off with anything in particular? Wine, Champagne, water…?"

"At the moment we can start out with water, but with the meal I would like to order a bottle of the Prosecco wine please," he turned to me, "If that's alright with you?"

I smiled, "Yeah,"

"I'll return with your water." The waiter smiled and left us alone once more.

I opened the menu and was amazed at the selection, however the prices were astronomical. "Edward, how can you afford this?"

He chuckled, "Don't worry about it. My family and I make good pay. Ignore the prices and just find something you know you'll enjoy." He smiled.

"Okay."

I turned back to the menu and found a selection of prime rib. I had not eaten that in a while, so I decided that would be a good option.

I set the menu down on the table and found a pair of green eyes staring at me, a smile playing on his lips.

"What?"

"Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?" his crooked smile making an appearance.

"I think you might have mentioned it once."

"Well that just wont do, Bella, you look positively breathtaking tonight."

I smiled and the signature blush made its appearance.

"Thank you."

In the background a piano began to play a familiar melody.

The waiter returned.

"Are you ready?"

"Bella?"

"Yes, I'm ready. I would like the prime rib, medium well please, with a garden salad as my side."

The waiter turned to Edward after jotting down my order.

"I would like the filet minion with a garden salad as well."

"Very well. I'll have your orders out in a moment." The waiter finished writing Edward's order than retrieved our menu's, once again leaving us to ourselves.

The music was still playing a beautiful piece.

"Would you like to dance?" asked the velvety voice I knew and loved.

I turned and nodded my head in agreement.

"I have to warn you though, I'm not very good." I told him as he grabbed my hand and led my closer to the piano.

"It's all in the leading," he said simply, smiling his crooked grin.

He placed one hand on my waist while the other held my hand gently in his. He twirled me in circles as the pianist played Clair de Lune by Debussy, one of my favorite tunes.

As we turned around throughout the tune, Edward and I whispered to one another thoughts, loving words, and comments about the other.

As the song came to an end, Edward dropped my hands slowly. "Wait here," he turned around and moved to the piano player.

He bent over to whisper in the man's ear, I could only wonder what he said while I stood in the middle of the 'dance' floor.

Edward came back to stand in front of me.

As he took my hands in his, "This song is for you."

The piano number began to play sounding very familiar. After the intro Edward moved his head and looked at me in the eyes, singing the beautiful words to Aerosmith's "_I Don't want to Miss a Thing"_.

_I could stay awake just to hear you breathing _

_Watch you smile while you are sleeping_

_While you are Far away and Dreaming_

_I could spend my life in this sweet surrender_

_I could stay lost in this moment forever_

_Well, every moment spent with you _

_Is a moment I treasure_

_I don't wanna close my eyes_

_Don't wanna fall asleep_

'_Cause I'd miss you babe_

_And I don't wanna miss a thing_

'_Cause even when I dream of you_

_The sweetest dream will never do_

_I'd still miss you babe_

_And I don't wanna miss a thing_

As he sang the lyrics my vision got blurry, but I couldn't wipe away the tears and I didn't want to look away.

_Lying close to you_

_Feeling you heart beating_

_And I'm wondering what your dreaming _

_Wondering if it's me you're seeing_

_Then I kiss your eyes and thank God We're together_

_And I just wanna stay with you _

_In this moment forever, forever and ever_

_I don't wanna close my eyes _

_I Don't wanna fall asleep_

'_Cause I'd miss you , babe_

_And I don't wanna miss a thing_

'_Cause even when I dream of you _

_The sweetest dream will never do_

_I'd still miss you babe_

_And I don't wanna miss a thing_

_I don't wanna miss one smile_

_I don't wanna miss one kiss_

At this he gave me a peck on the lips, making me smile.

_Well, I just wanna be with you_

_Right here with you, just like this_

_I just wanna hold you close_

_Feel your heart so close to mine_

He took one of his hands and placed it right above my heart, feeling clearly the rapid heartbeat at his touch.

_And just stay here in this moment _

_For all the rest of time_

_  
Don't wanna close my eyes_

_Don't wanna fall asleep_

'_Cause I'd miss you babe_

_And I don't wanna miss a thing_

'_Cause even when I dream of you_

_The sweetest dream will never do _

_I'd still miss you babe_

_And I don't wanna miss a thing_

_I don't wanna close my eyes _

_I don't wanna fall asleep_

'_Cause I'd miss you , babe_

_And I don't wanna miss a thing_

'_Cause even when I dream of you _

_The sweetest dream will never do_

_I'd still miss you babe_

_And I don't wanna miss a thing_

_Don't wanna close my eyes_

_Don't wanna fall asleep yeah_

_I don't wanna miss a thing_

At this point my cheeks were stained with shed tears, my eyes were red, and my cheeks were probably stained with mascara, making me no doubt hideous._ Alice better not be mad at me that I just ruined her make over. I probably look horrible but this is __**so **__worth ruined make-up,_ I thought.

He pulled me to him as the song drifted to another sweet melody. Our lips met in a sweet and tender kiss and far to soon for my liking he pulled away.

He chuckled when he saw the pout on my face. Placing a quick peck on my protruding lip, he began to speak.  
"Bella I know we haven't known each other for very long, and some of that time was taken away after the accident, but from the moment I saw you on the snow-mobile, I have fallen in love with you. You are everything a guy could ask for, smart, beautiful, funny, sweet, caring, understanding, and so many other adjectives. You came into my life like a meteor and I haven't been able to see anything the same since. Bella Hale I love you."

I couldn't believe it. I knew how I felt, but it just seemed impossible for him to feel remotely the same way. I was able to fall for him more and more while he was in the hospital, finally coming to the conclusion that I couldn't live without him.

Throughout his speech tears continued to fall. My breath hitched at his final words. I looked at his face and he seemed to be getting worried about something.

"Look, I understand if you don't feel the same-"

"What? Oh no…" I laughed lightly, "Edward you're my everything. Here hold on," I turned and trotted over to the pianist.

"Excuse me, I don't mean to bother you, but I was wondering if you could play a song for me?"

He chuckled briefly, "Absolutely, what can I play for you?"

"Do you know the song 'Everything' by Michael Buble?"

He laughed again, "Yes I do, he's quite popular with the ladies."

He turned back to the piano and played a grand opening, waiting for me to return to my partner.

_You're a falling star, you're the getaway car_

_You're the line in the sand when I go too far_

_You're the swimming pool on an August day_

_And you're the perfect thing to see_

_And you play your card, but its kinda cute_

_Oh, when you smile at me you know exactly what you do_

_Baby, don't pretend that you don't know it's true_

'_Cause you can see it when I look at you_

_And in this crazy life and through these crazy times_

_It's you, it's you; you make me sing_

_You're every line, you're every word, you're everything_

_You're a carousel, you're a wishing well_

_And you light me up when you ring my bell_

_You're a mystery, you're from outer space_

_You're every minute of every day_

_And I can't believe, uh, that I'm your __**girl**_ ( I emphasized causing him to chuckle.)

_And I get to kiss you just because I can _

At these words I pecked his lips quickly before continuing on with the song.

_Whatever comes our way, oh we'll see it through_

_And you know that's what our love can do_

_And in this crazy life and through these crazy times_

_It's you, it's you; you make me sing_

_You're every line, you're every word, you're everything_

We twirled around the small area to the quick tempo, provided by the piano and the drums that began to accompany the pianist, creating a wonderful beat and melody. His face lit me up, the dancing causing me to laugh, but I stopped when the lyrics started up once more.

_So la la la la la la la_

_So la la la la la la la_

_And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times_

_It's you, it's you; you make me sing_

_You're every line, you're every word, you're everything_

_You're every song, and I sing along_

'_Cause you're my everything_

_Yeah, Yeah_

_So la la la la la la la_

_So la la la la la la-la-la la-la-la_

I finished the last few notes of the song and brought my lips to Edwards. Just before I closed the distance I whispered, "Edward Anthony Cullen, I love you," then I crashed my lips to his.

I slowly pulled away, when applause met my ears. I looked around to find that we had a small audience, men and women, some of which were in tears. I blushed red and smiled, looking back at Edward I found he was staring at me with a huge smile. I took his hand and we went back over to our table.

Edward pulled out my chair and allowed me to sit, then went over and sat across from me.

Just as we were situated our waiter Kyle returned a broad smile on his face.  
"Although your food was ready, I had them keep it heated while the two of you danced,"

My blush grew deeper at the knowledge that clearly everyone in this hotel saw us dancing. The funny thing was though, I didn't care if they knew about my feelings about Edward, it was just the fact that people were watching us that had me blushing.

Edward's grin never faltered or died while we ate and I am almost positive that my grin was still on my face as well.

We continued to talk amiably over dinner, enjoying one another's company. The food was incredible, as was the wine.

I thought back to the song he sang to me and agreed with the lyrics 'I could stay lost in this moment forever'. I was in complete bliss at that moment. I was in love with Edward Cullen and surprisingly he loved me too.


	17. Chapter 17

Chap 17

BPOV

The dinner was amazing, the surroundings were beautiful, and what made the night spectacular was the man that was sitting at my side.

Edward and I were in the truck on the way home.

We had danced and confessed our love, making this night one to remember.

Edward was holding my hand on top of the arm rest between us.

The radio was playing a beautiful classic piano piece.

I was happy and in love and I couldn't wait to tell my sisters of my evening.

***

We pulled up to the drive and Edward came around to my door to help me out. _Such a gentleman,_ I thought.

I got out and wrapped my arms around his waist, his left arm slung around my shoulders.

From the interior of the house I heard a high pitched squeal, I could only assume from Alice.

"I guess that means they know we're home." Edward said chuckling.

"Or something very exciting just happened that we no doubt will find out about as soon as we step through those doors." I altered.

We stepped onto the porch and the door swung open to reveal a very happy Alice, grinning from ear to ear.

"Eeeeek!WellIhopeyouhadawonderfultimewithBella,Edward,causenowsheisgoingtocomewithusandspillthebeanstoher_spectacular_evening!"Alice said in a rush, barely providing time for either of us to understand her words.

In fact the only word that I was sure I heard, in that run-together sentence was 'spectacular', although I am also fairly sure she had mentioned both Edward and I, so who knows what she said.

Before I was allowed a word to Edward, I was whisked away upstairs by my very hyper-active sister.

At the top of the stairs I, being the klutz that I am and due to Alice's overeager behavior, face planted, my feet flying up behind me. I heard and felt the vibrations of feet running up the stairs along with, "Oh my gosh Bella are you okay?" "Alice?!" "Bella, Bella, are you alright?" from three different voices.

A laugh echoed around the room as the guffawing sounds of Emmett were heard. Two arms wrapped around my waist and lifted me gently to my feet.

When I was upright I found Emmett bent over in laughter, Edward's concerned face staring at me- appraising the damage that wasn't there, Rose's slightly amused, slightly angry face, and Alice's shocked and apologetic face.

"It's okay; I'm fine, nothing broken- that I can tell. It's okay…And Emmett if you don't shut up, I'll make sure that Rose does not kiss you for an entire _week!_"

As soon as I said that Alice broke into a smile, Rose smirked, Edward smiled, and Emmett, of course, shut up and funnily enough looked terrified.

"You wouldn't," he squeaked out.

I turned to Rose, "Would I Rose?"

"Oh yeah. Long story, but basically, been there done that, don't want it to happen again! So Emmett shut your flaps!" She turned to him and glared, causing him to shrink even further.

"Okay, 'Don't mess with the Hale girls', duly noted." Jasper stated in amusement from behind us at the bottom of the stairs. My sister's and I just laughed, boy has he got it down.

At the next moment Alice grabbed me around the wrist and yanked me into the closest bedroom, mine.

The door closed and Alice pushed me down onto my bed.

Alice jumped up on the bed with me and sat with her legs crossed leaning in, waiting, I could only assume, for juicy details. Rose walked around to the other side of the bed and climbed on as well.

"Okay, spill!" Alice demanded very eagerly.

"What? There's nothing to spill." I said innocently, smiling internally that I didn't give anything away while I was talking. I wanted them to suffer slowly by having to wait.

"Don't give me that! You two were grinning like idiots from the car to the front door. Now spill!"

"Well what do you think happened?" I said as I got up and began to undress, kicking off my shoes into the corner. "It was a date. We talked, we ate, we danced, we confessed our love. What else happens at a date?" I slipped in the 'confession' part for effect, hoping to see if they would catch it. By this point I was in my closet slipping out of my dress.

"Wait. What was that last part?" I heard Rose's approaching voice ask.

"Which part? I asked 'What else happens on a date?'"

"No, before that,"

I was grinning like mad.

"Oh, 'We talked,'" I put my pj's on, a t-shirt and short combination.

"After that,"

"We ate?"

"After that,"

"'We danced,'"

"Arrrggg!" Alice growled, "After that woman!!"

"Ooooh, you mean the 'We confessed our love' part, right?"

I didn't even get to finish the question because of the loud squeals reverberating around the closet interior.

Alice was jumping up and down clapping her hands together repeatedly and Rose was grinning like mad.

I walked around them and went to sit on my bed, grabbing a pillow and placing in my lap.

"So I guess you want details?"

They clapped their hands together in excitement and ran to join me on the bed, waiting for my story to unfold.

EPOV

I reluctantly released Bella as she was yanked by her wrist into a bedroom.

I went down the stairs and was suddenly face-to-face with Emmett.

"Emmet do you mind getting out of my face," I said while leaning back so that he was officially out of such close proximity.

"Sooo…" he said holding out the word.

I bent my head forward waiting for the ending of the sentence. No such luck.

"So what?"

"What happened? You both were grinning like idiots, what happened? Did you get some?"

"Emmett!!! Of course not! I took her on a date. You know 'getting some' as you so eloquently put it is not all there is it a relationship."

"Oh I know but I just assumed with the giddy look on your face that you might have gotten some action. But I guess our Eddie boy is still a virgin." He ended his statement with a smile while glancing at Jasper. I glared at the two of them, knowing that once again we had arrived on the topic of my virginity.

Part of this topic was a constant push to the fact that the one night that I came close, the girl passed out in my arms, on the way home! It was also the reason I hated the game of 'Truth or Dare', part of my dare was to pick up a girl with a cheesy pick up line and continue just to see how far things went. It was my sophomore year and my brothers and I were out with several other guys, one of whom was a jerk by the name of Marcus. He just loved to see how far women would let him go, use them once and toss them out on their behind. My brother's and I were never real close with him.

"Come on Ed? At least tell us about why you look the way you do?" Jasper asked pulling me out of 'memory lane'.

"Fine, you two are like gossip girls." So I told them of the spontaneous evening that I arranged and the events that unfolded.

"Wow. How do you do it Edward? I mean you had what thirty minutes to an hour to plan this and it came out like that?! That is amazing. Can you give me some ideas for when I go out with Alice? I want to make it a romantic evening that I know she'd love, but I just don't know how to." Jasper replied.

I smiled, Jasper was always the sentimental one, "I don't really know Jazz. It just kinda works out. But I can see what I can do."

"Well enough about me, what did you guys do?" I asked.

"Well you were here when Rosie and I went upstairs. I took her up to her room and we just talked."

I glanced at Jasper then back to Emmett. We both burst into laughter.  
"You?! The 'King of the Bedroom' just 'talked' with Rose? Are you sure it wasn't more like "Oh Rosie", "Emmett, Yes, Yes!"?" I moaned out their names, Jasper laughing hysterically at my actions.

"No. We talked like normal adults." Emmett said with a pout. "You know I'm not always about the bedroom," Jasper scoffed, "I'm not! At least not with her. She's different, I want her to know that I love her and I'm not just the kind of guy that just bags her and leaves. I love her, more than any other person I ever was in a relationship with." He was looking down at the floor, a faraway look in his eyes.

Jasper and I were silent for a moment.  
"Good for you man. It's about time your settle down. I mean you have always just looked and touched, but never really felt and I'm proud that you've found that with someone." Jasper told him. I smiled and nodded in agreement.

"But there was some moaning, don't get me wrong. We both know what we want." Emmett laughed, a goofy grin taking up his features, erasing the seriousness of the moment, but that was in his nature, to lighten the mood.

I rolled my eyes at my idiotic brother.  
"So Jazz how about you?"

"Not much. We went to the kitchen and made some pizzas." He smiled as he said, "I think she was able to get more sauce on me and her than the actual pizza! But we had fun, and we helped each other clean off." I rolled my eyes at him and his growing smirk. I did not really want to find out more than necessary what happened between my brothers and their girlfriends.

The girls came down the stairs in their pajamas, sitting on or by their significant other.

Bella sat in my lap and intertwined out fingers. I rubbed circles on her upper left arm, as my left arm draped around her shoulders. She lightly began to trace patterns on my right arm, making 'goose bumps' appear.

The others were whispering to the other, occasionally a heart-felt kiss made its appearance, but nothing more. Bella and I were quiet, not needing words to fill the silence between us. That is one thing I loved about her, she did not feel the need to utter words to hear her talk. She was one of a kind and I loved her.

I looked down and found her brilliant brown eyes gazing up at me.

"What are you thinking about?" she whispered so low I barely heard.

"I love you."

Her radiant smile was her answer, mouthing the same words in return.

I kissed her temple and continued to rub circles on her arms.

A phone rang in the silence.

Emmett moved on the coach, still holding Rose, but moving so he could reach into his back pocket.

He opened the phone and began to speak, "Hello?"

He smiled in answer to who ever was on the other end.

"Hey mom." _Ah,_ I thought. "No we are just sitting in the living room enjoying each other's company. Why...Oh okay…. No let me ask." He turned to the rest of us. "Do you ladies have anything planned tomorrow?"

I looked down to Bella who was looking between Rose and Alice. They all shook their heads slowly, "No I don't think so. But then again we can't every really plan anything because of our job." Bella answered.

Emmett turned back to his phone, "They don't think so…Okay…But-…Fine…Yes ma'am…" He chuckled, "Yes ma'am. Love you too." He snapped the phone shut.  
"Okay so apparently our mom and dad are planning something for all of us to do together. Unfortunately for us she wouldn't tell me what it was, only to dress comfortably, and for you ladies to bring a nice evening gown as well. Sorry that's all I have."

I laughed, "Sounds like mom."

"Hmm, I wonder what's she's planning." Jasper thought out loud.

Alice turned to Jasper, "Do you know if there are any special events going on at the hotel?"

Jasper looked up at me with furrowed brows, "Not that I know of. You?"

I shook my head. I hardly ever paid attention to what was going on at a hotel. Normally I was involved in something outside of it, and wouldn't have been able to attend the function anyways.

The silence took over once more as everyone contemplated what was to happen tomorrow.

After a few moments another phone began to ring. Alice bounced up out of Jasper's lap and danced over to the phone on the table behind the couch.

"Hello…Oh hey Carmen…Uh-huh…no Esme is planning something for all of us to attend but I don't have any detail as to when that is…I see…okay…Alrighty then." She said ending on a chipper note.

"Carmen would like us to come in tomorrow morning, she and Eleazer have a surprise. It's for every one so every one is coming in. Oh and she also asked for us to bring in the dogs as well." She spoke to the room and sat on Jasper's lap once more, snuggling in as he wrapped his arms around her small frame.

Bella turned her head around looking at the TV up against the wall. The clock said 12:34.

"Well I guess this means we should go to bed." Her voice was reluctant and she had yet to move, clearing not wanting the night to end just yet.

She turned her face back to me, her chocolate brown eyes sad,

"Do you need to leave?" she whispered.

I knew that if the girls were headed to bed than we, the boys, should head out, but I couldn't bear to tell her that, I like her, did not want to leave her side.

"Only if you want me to," I replied in the same tone.

She buried her face in my neck and wrapped her small arms around my torso. I heard mumbling and felt the vibrations of her speaking into my chest, but had no idea as to what she said or if I was even meant to hear.

"What love?" I asked quietly, not wanting to bring attention to the two of us.  
I glanced up briefly at the movement in my peripheral vision and found Rose leading Emmett around the couch. A few minutes later Alice and Jasper followed.

I glanced back down to the love in my arms; she had not relinquished her hold in the slightest, making my heart grow more in the love that she displayed.

"Love, the others went to the girl's rooms, so, if you would like to repeat what you mumbled into my chest…" I offered, but I didn't want to push her if she didn't want to say anything.  
She brought her head up and looked at me in the eyes, her face held a beautiful blush, but I had no idea why.

"Love, why are you embarrassed? I love that you don't want me to leave, I don't want to leave either."

She lowered her head, "Will you stay?"

I took my index finger and raised her chin, "I would love too, but only if you feel comfortable."

Even though we had hardly been separated these last two weeks, some of which I was unconscious for, we had never really slept in a bed together. Bella would sleep on top of the covers in my arms on the hospital bed or in the near-by chair. But this would be a first where we would be sleeping together in a bed at home, under covers, in pajamas. But whether we were in her bed, my bed, or the hospital bed, as long as I got to be with her I was happy.

She nodded her head, a small smile on her lips. "Please," broke from her lips and that was my cue. I brought my left arm around her back, and my right under her knees, lifting her up to take her upstairs. Her head rested on my shoulder as I moved through the house.

At the top of the stairs I quietly asked which room was hers, she pointed to the one close by, and I continued forward.

As I entered the room I briefly looked around, noting how much this room complimented my love. Simple, serene, classical, innocent, and beautiful all rolled into one.

I shifted her weight slightly to release my hand, so as to bring back the covers. I laid her down and tugged on my shirt. I dropped the thing on the floor and found Bella gazing at my chest. I smirked, but undid the button and zipper on my jeans, adding those to the shirt on the floor. Bella's eyes raked my entire body. When her eyes came back to meet mine, her face turned pink.  
"Would you like for me to put my shirt back on? I usually sleep like this, but if it makes you uncomfortable-  
"No your fine." She said quietly and shifted over on the bed.

I climbed in beside her, wrapping my arm around her small waist. I brought her snug to my chest, wanting to feel her beside me.

Our breathing evened out and the last thing I remember thinking before sinking into unconsciousness was, _I'm in heaven with a beautiful angel in my arms. A beautiful angel that happens to love me as I love her. _


	18. Chapter 18

_**A/n: I would like to say a BIG Thank you to all my great reviewers! You guys are soooooo amazing!!! Ok so with school over I should be able to update faster.**_

This idea kinda just came to me so… Here ya go

Chap 18

About ten minutes after my sisters and I arrived, Carmen came into the large arena with a new dog in tow.

The dog was beautiful. She had a gray coat along her back but was white through her chest, legs and underbelly. Her entire face was white as well. The thing was though she reminded me of a wolf, but only smaller. Yet oddly enough, excluding Jake, she was by far the largest of all the dogs owned by any of our group.

We had come this morning without the guys as they had to go change, having no fresh clothes at our house.

It was amazing to wake up this morning and find those brilliant green eyes smiling down on me.

He had smiled before wishing me a 'Good morning', then made me blush when he continued with, "You are so beautiful when you sleep, truly like an angel. I love the fact that you talk in your sleep as well,"

"Oh no what did I say?"

"Nothing but my name, love."

Edward and I stayed in bed simply talking and cuddling till a rap on the door by Alice interrupted us. She began ordering us to get up and dressed, that we were all going to enjoy making breakfast together.

After rolling out of my comfortable position in Edward's arms under an amazingly soft comforter, I got dressed and finished my 'human moment'; we made our way down stairs, Edward's hand in mine.

Entering the kitchen we found Emmett covered in flour, Jasper slicing fruit, Rose laughing very hard while stirring the contents of a bowl, and Alice making coffee and orange juice.

We spent a good while making pancakes, bacon, eggs, and fruit salad for breakfast, and what an amazing breakfast it was. We were able to talk, laugh, and enjoy each other's company while eating a breakfast made by each of us.

The boys left after that, leaving my sisters and me to dress and take the dogs to the training center.

Carmen snapped me out of my reverie.

"Hello everyone, this is Nessie. I know what you're probably thinking, but let me just say that she has been trained expertly and is incredibly well behaved."

"Carmen," Tanya spoke up, caution and uncertainty in her words, which didn't make since to me, the dog was gorgeous. "Is that a wolf?" her voice leaning towards incredulity.

"Well technically she is only **part** wolf."

"**What?!"**

"Well she is a wolf-dog," so my suspicions that she looked like a wolf were confirmed, makes since.

"Carmen, she could turn on any of us at any time!" Tanya said her voice pleading.

"She could turn on the **dogs** at any time."

"I already told you, she is well trained and has been around humans and other animals many times before. Besides with her on the team, our times can be shortened dramatically. And anyways," she sighed a frown in her features, "We can't give her up. She has no where else to go. The owner that had her died, he had asked that she go to a good home, and when his family found out about us they decided to contact us. She **needs** us. She **needs** a home."

Through her story I was already bought and there was no turning back for me.

I looked down at my legs and found an eager Jake staring at the newcomer. It was weird it was like no one else was in the room for him, he just stared at her. I glanced at Nessie, who had caught his gaze and watched as she lowered her head, in a sort of protective stance, but no menacing growl came from her. She simply just stared back.

I began walking over to her, Jake at my heels, when I noticed that Seth had come to join us, a prance in his gate.

I noticed from my peripheral vision that Rose watched my slow movements toward the dog, but neither of my sisters made any move or sign to stop me. Tanya however hissed at me, "What are you doing?!" she screamed in a whisper.

"What does it look like? I'm going to greet the new-be."

Nessie moved her soft brown eyes between me and Jake. Her head came up to look at me full on. I gave her a friendly smile, which made her tail wag in glee.

Finally in front of her, I squatted to her level and put my hand out for her to smell and get accustomed to. She threw me off when instead of taking caution to me she bounced over and knocked me down, covering me in wet kisses. I laughed when Jake and Seth joined.

I vaguely could hear the laughter from the others at what I could only imagine was a particularly funny sight. A half-wolf, Akita, and Anatolian Sheppard attacking a 5'4" petite- framed girl. I briefly wondered how I always seemed to end up the one on the ground being 'attacked' by giant yet friendly dogs.

I shoved at Seth and was able to sit up. When my eyes caught site of a handsome figure, that I knew had green eyes, walking through the front entrance with two others in tow. I shot up, startling the dogs, and ran to greet Edward. Rose and Alice having noticed the moment I did, the entrance of the boys, had moved along with me at a similar pace.  
Edward caught me in an embrace and swung me in a circle.

"Hello love, miss me?"

I put my index finger to my chin in a thoughtful gesture, a smile playing on my lips to state my obvious playful attitude, "I guess so…" I said in an unsure tone. He played like he was shocked and appalled at my words, "Well I guess I'm just going to have to leave a more lasting impression then." I giggled at the underlying statement.

He set me down on my feet. Leah and Sam came over to out group, vying for attention. Edward scratched them on the head and looked up.

"Wow, who's the big one?"

I didn't have to look to know he was referring to Nessie, but I did anyways, answering his question at the same time.

Currently Jake, Seth, and Nessie were sniffing each other slowly trying to get to know one another.

"That is Nessie. She was given to the team by a family, her owner just died, and they couldn't keep her."

"What exactly is she?" he asked puzzlement on his face.

"Yeah, she's the biggest one over there, besides Jake." Emmett said in awe, clearly the others had heard the conversation.

"According to Carmen, who brought her here, she is half wolf." I answered.

"**Half-wolf?!"** They stated incredulously.

"Wow" Emmett voiced.

"Incredible," Edward said.

"What is the other half?" Jasper asked.

"Don't know, besides 'dog'. Carmen hadn't gotten that far." I said and began walking back towards the crowd of people and animals. Nessie, Jake, and Seth trotted over to us. Seth went to Jasper, Jake went to Emmett, and surprisingly Nessie came over to Edward. He bent down, just like when I first met him and allowed Nessie to smell him.

"She's beautiful." He said in awe, scratching behind her ears. She leaned into his touch and her eyes seemed to close at the feeling. I smiled; it looked like they hit it off pretty well.

Suddenly I heard a low growl behind me. I turned and found Leah hunched behind Rose's legs, baring her teeth at Nessie. Nessie turned to the growl and cocked her head. She seemed slightly unfazed at the threat, just confused as to why it was occurring.

"Leah." Rose reprimanded.

"Wait," Emmett said, turning between Nessie and Leah. "Hey Jazz, you don't think that Leah feels, territorial do you?"

Jasper's brows furrowed, "What do you mean?"

"Well think about it in a military aspect, she feels threatened by this new comer, a possible threat to her. Isn't she technically in animal terms the alpha-female?"

Recognition dawned on all our faces.

My brows furrowed once more, "That can't be right, in a wolf-pack technically Rose, Alice, and I would be the alphas more so Rose, as she is the oldest, and the dogs register that fact and follow the lines down. Leah would be more of an equal to Alice and me if Rose was the dominant female."

"That's true, but in the case of the other dogs **she** is the alpha female and Jake is the alpha male. With Nessie here, Leah could feel threatened that her spot could be replaced. She is letting Nessie know early what her place is."

I focused back on the dogs. Leah was still in protective stance but no longer growling. Sam stood behind her seeming to stay out of the conflict, but close by in case something did happen. Seth came up to Leah on his belly, whining softly, he licked her chin, trying to console her in some way. Jake on the other hand was standing almost protectively in front of Nessie, his head low and lip curled in a snarl. Nessie was still curious as to the conflict.  
As if a light went off in her head, she lied down on the ground; nose below Leah's and inched her way over. All the dogs watched intently at the interchange between the two females.

Even though this was happening all rather quickly, time seemed to have slowed, as we stood with bated breath for Leah's reaction.

Leah stared Nessie down, but did not move. Leah bent down and smelled Nessie, who in turn licked Leah's chin. Leah took this as a good thing and warmly it seemed accepted the newcomer.

We all breathed a sigh of relief.

Nessie stood and pranced off with the others to play.

I watched their interaction as I leaned into Edward's side with his arm around my waist.

"So where did you go off to this morning after breakfast?" I asked turning in Edward's arms to face him.

"Oh, we had to verify what we would be doing this evening. Still not incredibly sure, mom didn't say. But we did get details on what to wear, where to meet, what we would be doing for dinner, and so on." He brought his left hand up to look at the watch on his wrist.  
"In fact it is now 9:45, and our parents asked us to meet them at the coffee shop at the top of the mountain at 11:00, so we need to go back to your house to get ready."

"Sounds good," I turned, whistled to the dogs that were in the far corner, and started walking to go get my coat, hanging on its peg.

"Where are you off to?" Carmen asked.

"Oh Esme and Carlisle have plans for all of us and apparently we are supposed to meet them at 11…Is that alright?" I asked unsure of the reason she asked.

"Oh yes. That's fine, just curious. You guys have fun!" She replied turning toward the office, throwing us a wave over her shoulder.

"Wait Bella!" Eleazer breathed heavily trotting over to us from the other side of the room.

"Yes?" I asked slightly concerned for his health at how heavily he was now breathing.

"I was wondering if you and your sister's would mind taking Nessie with you. Since she has seem to hit it off with both you and your dogs it would probably be easier on her rather than living here, especially since she is used to living at a home."

I turned my head over to Rose and Alice, who were listening nearby their arms wrapped around Emmett and Jasper. Rose shrugged and Alice looked slightly excited jumping up and down on the balls of her feet. I looked back to Eleazer, a slight smile on his face at my sister's reactions, "I guess that means yes."

"Great. Let me give you some of her stuff and a list of instructions on what to feed her and so on."

My brows started to crease and my eyes were slowly bugging out. All of a sudden I was starting to regret saying yes. _What on earth does he mean?!_ I thought, _what all could one dog need?_ But then after thinking about it for a second I came to the realization that she is not _just_ a dog, so we would therefore have to respond to her natural wolf-side tendencies.

He came back with a folder of papers and a chain leash.

"I know that this chain probably looks slightly inhumane but because of what her other half is, you might need it, she is _powerful_," he said adding emphasis to the last word.

Emmett spoke up, "Well why don't I hold on to her for now? We work with her to ensure that she won't try and dominate any of you. I don't want any of you to get hurt by underestimating her."

"That sounds like a great plan," Rose said standing on her tip-toes so she could peck his cheek. "I love it when you're so sweet."

We all took a leash, Emmett taking Nessie's, and made our way out to the trucks parked in the driveway.

***

Crammed in the trucks, Emmett and Rose in one with the dogs, and the rest of us in the other, we drove to our house.

Parking in the driveway we all jumped out. Alice ran to the front door and unlocked it, while Emmett, Rose, and Jasper helped the dogs out. Edward and I unloaded the rest, mainly dog supplies and other miscellaneous items.

Upon entering the house I found Rose, the dogs, and Nessie maneuvering their way through the house, so as to get accustomed to her new surroundings.

Instead of being allowed to help, Alice dragged me up the stairs to get ready.

She shoved me in the direction of the bathroom, obviously hinting to take a shower, while she delved into my closet for an outfit.

Twenty minuets later I came out, having been washed and dried, back into the room. On the bed were dark washed jeans, a white long-sleeve Kenneth Cole (according to the label) Cowl neck top, and white fur trimmed snow shoes that would go on over my jeans.

I dressed grabbing a thick winter coat, so as to be prepared for whatever we were about to do.

Before I even made it through my door, Alice and Rose drug me back over to the bathroom.

"Guys seriously I don't need to be made over today. We don't even know what we'll be doing…I could…I could end up ruining all the work you went through. I mean, what kind of person would I be if I put you through _all_ this work and then it gets ruined anyways." I tried to lay it on thick, knowing that they a) didn't like it when I so much as smeared my lip gloss and b) knowing I would have to go through it anyways.

"Are you done?" Rose asked like a mom waiting for her child's temper tantrum to finish.

I slouched my shoulders in defeat.

"Good." Rose replied to my

"Now sit up, slouching is bad for your posture." Alice said grabbing my shoulders and yanking them back to a proper place.

Another fifteen minutes later, my hair was done, luckily enough for me, in a pony tail with soft curls. My make up was simple and elegant, just right for going out and doing only who knows what.

We made our way down the stairs into the arms of amazing guys.

Alice turned to the dogs, "Okay, Sam you're in charge. I don't want to see any messes when we get back. You know the rules."

Rose and I exchanged glances, smirking at our odd-ball of a sister. She always felt the need to boss around the dogs like a scolding mother before we left.

The group trudged back out into the snow over to the trucks. Edward and I stopped in the middle when Rose and Emmett decided to go in opposite directions.

They looked to one another, then to the four of us, and then back to each other.

"I thought we were going to take our truck?" Emmett asked.

"No our truck is bigger. We fit easier in this truck. We are taking _our_ truck."

"But we are the guys; _we _are supposed to drive _you_ around."

"Says who?!" This wasn't looking to good. I looked at Alice, who had the same nervous expression I did.

"Should we interrupt?" I whispered to her.

"I don't know."

Edward and Jasper looked between the two of us, "Why should we interrupt? What's wrong?"

"Rose has 'The look'. If we don't interrupt now, she might explode on poor unsuspecting Emmett, and that wouldn't be good." Alice supplied an answer.

"Hey!" I shouted over the two 'not-so-loving-love-birds'. "Why don't we take both? The girls can ride in one, and the guys can ride in the other?" My suggestion was met with angry glares, causing me to cower into Edward's side. "Or not." I said meekly.

"Guys enough. Emmett, 1st off we '_men_' don't have to drive anyone. 2nd the girl's truck is bigger, there is no denying it because its true- having to drive around four-now five- large dogs they need the room. Lastly Rose, if we drove, you wouldn't have to, thereby treating 'the men' as chauffer's. Okay? So everyone get into the truck. Rose and Emmett do rock-paper-scissors to see who drives." Edward spoke with authority, clearing having had to take role as 'referee' before.

"Good job," I congratulated, providing a peck on the cheek.

We climbed into the cab, Emmett in the driver's seat, having won the game.

Edward wrapped his arms around me, "Have I told you yet that you look beautiful today?"

I smiled, "Before right then? No"

"Well, for the second time in the last minute, you look beautiful today."

"Why thank you."

I rested my head on his chest.

***

At the top of the mountain we parked in our signature spot and emptied out of the truck.

On the inside of the coffee shop several tables were taken up with couples, enjoying the cold morning with a nice cup o' Joe.

"Ladies! How are my favorite customers?" Billy said with a big smile.

Rose answered, "Fabulous Billy, simply fabulous."

We approached the counter when he began talking once more, "Well I know what you three want, but there are three males, seemingly attached to your hip, that I don't know what they order, so how can I help you?"

Emmett started, "Do you have Italian roast?"

"Why yes, yes we do.

"One for me, please.

"One Café Mocha for me please," Jasper spoke.

"I'll just have a regular coffee please." Edward said.

"Alright, so one hot chocolate, a de-caf non fat late, an espresso, an Italian roast, Café Mocha, and a regular coffee. Is that it?"

"Yep," said Alice.

"Alright, I'll have it out shortly."

We nodded and moved toward a large booth in the corner. I looked around the room for Esme and Carlisle, but could not see their familiar faces.

In the booth making small talk over our drinks, the bell over the front door chimed and in walked the Mr. and Mrs. Cullen.

Jasper waved them over to our table, Edward pulling up chairs for them to sit down in.

Carlisle whispered in his wife's ear and after getting an answer moved to the counter. Esme made her way through the tables to where we sat.

"Hello everyone. Girls it is so nice to see you again. I'm glad that nothing could conflict so that we could all get together like this." Esme smiled.

"So mom, what are you planning on us doing today?" Emmett asked, going straight to the point, he didn't seem one for 'small talk'.

Esme chuckled lightly, "That's for me to know and you to find out."

Carlisle sat beside his wife drinks in tow.  
"Since I was at the counter, the man Billy decided to give me everyone's drink. So find yours and take it."

We passed drinks around to their rightful owners and once again started up the pleasantries and small talk.

At 11:30, with everyone's drink empty, Esme interrupted the small conversations and got our attention.

"Okay, at noon I have something planned for us, so follow behind us and we will get this day started."

Everyone situated we followed closely behind Carlisle and Esme.

After thirty minutes of driving we came to a stop at a small wooden cabin with no identifying name around it.

Carlisle and Esme waved to us from outside of their car, inviting us in.

The inside was small and decorated in a classic cabin theme (probably annoying Alice to no end). At one end a small desk and a short elderly man sat behind the desk.

"How can I help you?" He asked his voice scratchy with age.

"Hello my name is Esme Cullen. I believe I spoke with you on the phone a day or so ago. This is my family and we would like a tour."

This statement puzzled me; my sisters and I were not particularly in the need of a tour, having lived here most of our lives. I glanced and found Rose and Alice with similar confused expressions.

I turned back to the old man, who had his small frames perched on the tip of his nose. He was looking down, appearing to be reading something.  
"Ah, yes, Mrs. Cullen, with a party of…" He paused his brow furrowing, then looked up finishing with, "8."

Esme smiled, "That's correct."

"If you will follow me, I will take you to a separate room where a guide will begin explaining rules, what you will be seeing, and so on. I would myself, but as you can see age it seems has finally caught up with me."

I few chuckles followed his remark.

We entered another room that held several benches, more cabin theme, and a tall slender man with jet black hair and bright blue eyes. He turned toward us upon our entrance and smiled a gentle smile.

"Hello," he started, with a voice that was tender, yet somehow rough.  
"My name is David and I will be your tour guide through the mountains. Please take a seat and I will begin."

The group seated itself on the wooden benches.

"First why don't you give your names so I can address you better and more personally."

Carlisle took charge and introduced us in pairs, giving a subtle indication that each of the women in this room where taken.

David nodded slightly with a smile, whether in understanding of the underlying meaning or not I didn't know.

"On this journey I will take you through the mountains and show you the wildlife that Denali, Alaska has to offer. Unfortunately for it being winter the bears are in hibernation, but that does not leave out many others that can be found."

This sounded exciting, even having been in these mountains many a time, my sisters and I were never able to enjoy the animal life that the forests contained.

After a short speech of rules and expectations, we piled into a jeep of sorts. Fortunately we were all able to fit into one so only one car was needed.

***

We drove deep into the woods, near streams and rivers, on back roads that none of us knew existed, and were continually surprised at the sights that were perceived. Everything around was beautiful, particularly with the added effect of snow and ice. Thinking ahead like she usually did, Alice forced the man to stop allowing us to take pictures with her digital camera. The sight was amazing, never once ceasing to surprise us. We were able to spot large groups of Elk, Moose, Caribou, Dall sheep, and even the spectacular Bald Eagles. I was continually in awe of our surroundings.

Our group spent hours driving up and down the mountains enjoying the breathtaking scenery. But at some points the good must come to an end, which was the case for this tour. At 3:00 we ended back at the cabin, exiting from the large jeep.

Back in the cabin we each thanked David for his time and taking us on this tour. Each girl gave him a hug, and every male shook hands briefly with the guide. I was last to give him a hug and found myself being squeezed a little too tightly.

"It was nice getting to know you Bella." I felt something move on my side so I broke the embrace to see what it was. I saw nothing so I moved over to Edward, feeling slightly uneasy._ Really, the __**entire**__ time he's a gentleman and he chooses __**now**__ to get touchy and weird,_ I thought. I reached into my pockets and my left hand was met with a crinkle of something hard. I put my hand around it and pulled it out. Not remembering ever putting something in my pocket I opened the small folded and slightly crinkled paper.

What I found on the sheet was shocking, making my blood boil. _How dare he!_ I thought. I went back into the room causing Edward to look at me in confusion. I walked right up to David, who had a small smirk on his face. I pulled my hand back and swung to make contact with his face in a slap, permanently wiping off his stupid smirk.

"Really?! Did you not see that I have a boyfriend?! I can't believe you, you egotistical jerk!!" I screamed at him, alerting everyone else of a conflict. But the look on David's face almost had me laughing, he was terrified and shocked.

I turned on my heel and made my way to the truck, stomping past everyone on my way out. Edward glared at David but followed me.

I opened the cab door and sat in the back seat in a huff.

Allowing myself to cool off, I began to realize that what I just did was probably a bit over the top and rash, but I was with my boyfriend _right then_ it wasn't like I was _clearly_ taken. My cheeks were flushed with anger and embarrassment, but I wasn't going to let it get to me, clearly that ^$*(%#David needed a lesson in manners.

"Okay, love, not that I didn't love seeing you defend yourself, and in all honesty it kind of turned me on, but can I ask what he did that you felt the need to slap him?"

I handed him the piece of paper and Edward looked down at it, whereupon he began laughing.

"Oh love." He brought me to him in a tight hug and kissed my head and different parts of my face.

Emmett, Rose (who sat up front), Alice, and Jasper (who sat in back with Edward and I), climbed into the car, curious and slightly amused expressions.

"Okay, so what was that all about?" Rose asked slowly.

Edward answered, "He gave her his number." The entire cab burst into roaring laughter, making my already heated face to grow to a new level.  
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up."

"Hey, at least he didn't feel the need to slap your ass," Rose said matter-of-factly.

"Wait, he didn't do that to you did he?" Emmett asked with a protective glare.

"No love. If he did you wouldn't have been able to stop me from taking him out," she replied, leaving us in laughter once more.

"Okay on to our next adventure!" Emmett yelled, receiving a slap on his head.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"We're in a car you goof! Lower the volume."

***

**_A/n: Well i hope you like. I haven't started the next part but i have ideas. And yes it is possible to do one of these tours, but its during the summer and you can see bears! so cool i want to go- anyhoo._** **_I'm starting to really really really like your reviews so can i have some more please!! (insert puppy-dog face here)_**


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The group drove till we found ourselves back at the top of the mountain.

After parking the car, Carlisle and Esme emerged from their vehicle signaling for us to do the same.

We exited the car and made our way over to the couple.

"Okay gang," cried Esme, her excitement bubbling over in an Alice sort of fashion.

"We thought since the last time the group tried to go skiing it failed miserably, we would make it happen! So we each get to pick a mountain, but we will have to be done no later than…6 o'clock, because we have reservations at 8.

"For what?" Emmett asked.

"I'm not going to tell you… So here is a map, each of you make your selection and we will get started," Esme continued.

"Um, Mrs. Cullen-

"Esme

"Uh Esme, we need gear. So actually before we go anywhere, shouldn't we get dressed?" Rose asked politely.

"Oh, you have a point," she seemed a crestfallen, but suddenly turned into a large grin; "Of course I knew that! We have a scheduled session with a guide, who will set everything up for us, including our gear, now I just have to find him…" she began to turn in circles looking for our 'guide'.

"Ah! There he is!"

We all turned to find two guys strolling towards us, each different from the other, yet remarkably similar. One was a very stout and stocky man, yet still seemingly tall and well statured. The other was taller and also built as well, both reminding me of bodybuilders.

"Good afternoon! My name is Felix and this is my coworker Demetri. We will be assisting you throughout the day, getting you fitted for gear, driving you from mountain to mountain and so on."

"Shall we?" Demetri asked, waving his hand in a sweeping motion behind him toward a fashionable multi-passenger jeep.

The boys helped us into our seats. Then after everyone was comfortable the vehicle began to move.

After a few moments of driving we found ourselves at a small hut, with people going up to and walking around.

"If you will please follow me, we will take you to a private location where we can get your boots and skis." Felix offered.

The group was quiet as we followed along behind, yet I'm surprised Alice had yet to explode; she seemed quite ready to burst from excitement, already jumping up and down.

"Is your friend always this hyper," a voice asked me from behind, causing me to jump. I turned and found an apologetic Demetri, "Sorry didn't mean to scare you."

I waved him off with a chuckle, "Its okay, and to answer your question, yes, some days more so than others." I shook my head at my sister, "Oh by the way, she's my sister, so is the blonde girl."

He looked between the three of us, as Edward and I were in the back of the trailing group, a puzzled expression took over his features, and "How?" he asked incredulously.

I laughed lightly, "I know! We look completely different and very rarely have anything truly in common with each other, sometimes we wonder if we were adopted."

Demetri looked thoughtful, nodding his head in understanding.

The hut was right upon us, when Felix stopped suddenly and turned to face us.

"Okay, if they guys would follow me we can get you your gear, ladies follow Demetri he can help you."

The group followed orders and Demetri led us to a side hut.

At the counter sat a very pretty young woman, with dark skin and green eyes. (Nothing that compared to Edward's, but still all-in-all very pretty)

"Hey Gianna, we have four beautiful ladies that need some ski shoes."

Esme went forward and gave the woman her shoe size, Demetri getting Rose's size.

Having received our shoes, after having stuffed into multiple to get the correct fit, we strapped ourselves down and found a pair of skis.

Alice got pink, Rose got red, and Esme picked green, so I selected blue.

Carrying our skis over to the little bench we waited patiently for the boys to finish. A few short seconds later they rounded the small hut, their own skis in tow.

"Okay, looks like everyone is ready, let's go."

We piled back into the jeep and Carlisle proceeded to tell our drivers which hill was requested first.

We drove quickly down a bumpy road preventing good fluent conversation.

At a stopping point we were at the base of a mountainside near the ski lift.

"Okay on our first stop we have 'Doctor Doom'. If you will follow Demetri he will set everyone up on the lift and help you at the top."

"Who picked this?" Emmett asked.

"I did actually, just for you, and you will see why when we go down," Rose replied.

At the top of the hill we lined up in pairs, Emmett and Rose in front, Demetri behind Jasper and Alice. Edward and I were holding hands waiting for the two in front of us to make their way down the obstruction infused hill.

I turned to Edward, "Just so you know, I don't think I will be going very fast down this hill, it's hard enough for me to walk, I don't think it would be a good idea for me to go fast when there are rocks and trees obscuring the path down," Edward chuckled, "Don't worry I wont go far," I smiled lightly and mouthed 'I love you' to which he returned.

Carlisle and Esme were making their way down now; Demetri gave the order to Rose and Em that when they were half-way it was safe to go down.

"Ready hot stuff?" Emmett called, but when he turned to look at Rose she stuck her tongue out and shoved off, leaving him behind.

"Come on you big lug! Last one down buy's me dinner!"

Emmett shoved off, a huge grin on his face.

With them at the half-way point Edward and I shoved off silently.

I swerved and dodged trees and large rocks. I sliced the snow beneath me, turning and moving across the snow. The one thing I always enjoyed about skiing is that I was able to be graceful. Edward and I 'danced' across the snow swerving and slicing in and out of each other's paths. I saw a rock that left the ability to ski on top allowing a large jump to occur at the end, so feeling brave I made the turn toward the rock. I catapulted myself into the air, loving the feel of the wind around my cheeks, brushing my hair behind me, and successfully landed on my skis back on the snow.

Edward veered toward me yelling and whistling, "That was amazing! You looked absolutely gorgeous."

"Thanks, I thought 'Why not?'"

At the bottom of the hill we slid to a stop a short distance from the others.

"Oh my gosh Bells that was_amazing!_" said Rose

"Yeah Bella you got some _air! _That was wicked!" Emmett cheered. I grinned, "Thank you."

Alice and Jasper were making their descent a little faster than Edward and I, but not in the same way as Rose and Em, who were showing off. Demetri followed close behind.

All at the bottom, several complimenting my 'wicked jump' as Emmett dubbed it, we moved to the jeeps.

"What's the next one?" Jasper asked.

"'Dragon's Bend' selected by Alice." Demetri read off the list as he sat in the 'shot gun' position.

The day was spent in wonder, going up and down ski slopes, one selected by every person in our group.

'Dragon's Bend' was selected for Jasper's love of history, as there was historical significance on this mountain, and it twisted and turned the entire way down. Everyone loved it.

The next slope was my selection 'Pitchfork Peak', for Edward, as it was basic down-hill slope that had no obstructions, just made for speed. When he found out why I choose that particular hill he was giddy and displayed his crooked grin the entire time, both up and down the hill. At the bottom I received a twirl in his arms, "That was _spectacular!_"

Esme chose 'Love Nest Pass' due to the many birds that nested there, with a nearby waterfall, making the scene breathtaking. At the top of this hill we all decided to go down with our significant others, taking it slow and steady, providing each of the couples to spend some time together enjoying an amazing moment of peace and a thrill.

After all the selections by the girls were finished we moved on to the mountains chosen by the guys. Carlisle's selection was first. 'Waterfall Gorge' is a spectacular sight that is well known for the multiple waterfalls around the mountain. Interestingly enough the mountain leads through a tunnel and into the 'gorge' part of the mountain, where ten different waterfalls can be seen, surrounding you by falls, covering you in mist, and invading your ears with the thunderous noise of the water.

Edward chose 'Spiral Descent', a slope that literally spirals around the mountain. Although it provides an amazing view, it is rather troubling having to focus on the mountain in front of you due to the continuous turn as well as the multitude of trees. Luckily the edge was a far enough to the right of us (as we were going counterclockwise down the hill) that we had no fear of falling off the side of the mountain.

'Mania Mountain' was chosen by Jasper as it known for more experienced skiers with the many jumps, turns, obstacles, and more down the hill. More than once down the hill I was able to catch quite a bit of air, but that was only lessened by the fact that I almost ran into a few trees. Once I even had to swerve due to a tree and ended up in the air after flinging myself off an enormous bolder.

The last selection was done by Emmett, which in it self made me rather nervous, only further fueling the flame when I found out the name of the summit on which we would be plummeting. 'Jester Summit'. By far the worst of the selections. The mountain is crazy and very few that go down this mountain come out without some sort of injury. But after hurling off of cliffs, swiveling around clumps of trees, avoiding the rather steep down grade, and finally passing the 'loop-t-loop' in the middle of the slope, I safely skidded to a halt at the base of the mountain. Great fully not finishing in last. Emmett made it slightly more enjoyable with his constant jokes being tossed about down the hill, causing each of us to laugh hysterically or shake our heads at his stupidity. It was a wonder that no one became too distracted and thereby creating injury.

At the bottom of the mountain, everyone came to a halt in a circle formation, safe and sound. Esme glanced at her watch.

"Okay we better head back it is now 5:17. The girls will want to be back in time to do their hair."

"Where are we going that the girls need to dress up?" Emmett asked, still determinedly trying to discover his mother's plans.

She grinned and headed for the car.

Around thirty minutes later we were at the hotel.

"Excuse me Esme, but how are we supposed to do our hair here? We have no supplies." Alice asked in a worried tone. Being the fashion obsessed person she is, it is common for her to become worried about the less important things, but I would never dare let Alice know that I was thinking that. Obviously she knew how to make anyone look good, there is no denying it, and so if she obsesses about the oddest things I will not say a word. Alice is Alice.

"Don't worry dear, I have everything under control. Follow me." She turned to the boys after speaking to my sisters and me and spoke, "Now boys, you must _all_ be _**completely**_ ready by 7:30 or so help me I will make your lives miserable." The seriousness to her tone had the boys cowering, causing the girls and me to stifle our giggles. Esme turned around in a bounce, "This way!"

We danced along behind her excited for the night's events, whatever they may be.

We spent around an hour being primped and polished. Nails done, hair curled, we were finally able to select our gowns. I went simple with a floor length Ivory capped sleeve gown, that had a sweet-heart neckline and an empire waist. Esme also went elegant yet simple with a floor length v-neck embellished evening gown. The gown was sleeveless with tank top style straps. The sequins covered the triangular bra-cups till the bust line, where the dress flowed out in a black fabric. Alice went with a little more flare. She went with a strapless fitted gown with bead accents. The bodice was covered in a beaded design from the top of the sweet-heart neckline to the waist of the form-fitting dress, until around mid thigh where the dress fell fluidly around her legs in an elegant fashion. Rose's dress was a little more showy (but that is just her), as she wore a silver strapless gown with a beaded bodice and a 'keyhole' opening. It was fitted till her midriff where it pleated around her small waist. The beaded embellishments continued from the bodice down, covering the gown in small details of flowers. Once more the dress was floor length, but hers contained a tiny train, the skirt made of lace with a scalloped hemline.

All in all we were the four most beautiful girls alive tonight and had wrapped around our fingers four of the most handsome guys.

At the entry way we met our better halves, each giving wonderful praise to the girl they love and their beautiful appeal tonight. I think Emmett also whispered something about 'seeing what's on underneath the gown', but I would really hope that he waited until the two were alone, and that might be a while.

At 7:45 Esme led us to the downstairs foyer where a number of people in long gowns and men in tuxes were waiting.

Seeing a banner of sorts I cocked my head to find a poster of what was held beyond the rather large oak doors.

"Welcome guests to the showing of 'the Phantom of the Opera'. Showings will be Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings beginning at 8 PM. Please join us for a wonderful time of beauty, mystery, and a chorus of music!"

I almost squealed in delight. Edward noticing my distraction turned and read the same poster while I turned to Esme.

"Oh my gosh! I can't believe this. This is my favorite play besides 'Romeo and Juliet'!" I ran over to the woman and embraced her in a tight hug.

"You are amazing!"

Alice and Rose began squealing with delight at the discovery of what we would be seeing, enveloping Esme in a hug once more. The boys looked on with amusement and love in their eyes.

The doors opened in a grand way, allowing the many people milling about to enter and take their seats. As soon as we were seated in a row close to the front, but off to the side, the lights began flickering, signaling the start of an amazing and spectacular play.

_**A/n: Wow I am sooooo sorry. When I got back home I spent an entire week cleaning house and preparing for a family reunion, so I couldn't update. Hopefully that will change. I can't promise anything cause in 2 weeks(?) I am going on vacation. **_

These are the dresses- hope the hyperlink works.

Rose: .#

Esme: .

Bella: .#

Alice: .


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

BPOV

We exited the auditorium in complete awe. The play was even better than I imagined. Edward held my hand the entire time and on occasion would sing in my ear the love songs between Raul and Christine, giving me goose bumps.

Rose, Alice, and I were lighter than air, having been with amazing guys, guys who willingly sat with us through an entire romantic play, and instead of complaining chose to whisper the words of love in our ears.

We made our way to the elevator, snatching one that all of us could fit in, and rode our way to the floor of their rooms.

At the door the girls and I chatted about our favorite scene while the boys opened the doors to their suits.

I flung myself onto the chair beside the bed throwing my arm over my head, completely exhausted after the day's events.

"Why don't the three of you stay the night with the boys? I don't think I would be able to bear having you three ladies on the road at this time by your selves." Esme told us.

"Mom whether they went or not, they wouldn't _be_ alone. You know very well that we would not… feel comfortable with them leaving to go home by them selves." Jasper replied with care. I noticed that he almost stumbled over his words, about to say something that clearly could have caused trouble.

Edward pulled me up, so that he would be able to sit on the chair with me in his lap.

"Besides," he began, "After spending one night with her, I don't think I could ever spend another away. I would be going whether I drove her or not." I cuddled into his chest, loving how much he cared about me and for me.

"Alright then," Carlisle started, "Just please promise not to get into any trouble."

We nodded with a smile, a few yawns escaping, and they retreated out the door.

"Well I am exhausted, Em, do you have a shirt I can wear? And where are we sleeping?" Rose asked. Emmett motioned for her to follow him into the adjoining room.

Jasper sat up and moved to a large suitcase on the floor and began digging through his things. He came up with a overly large t-shirt and tossed it gently to Alice, "Here you can sleep in this if you like?" she giggled and ran with the shirt into the bathroom. He smiled adoringly after her.

I turned my head to Edward's, "So do I get a shirt, or will I have to sleep in this dress? Which I know will only be the death of me due to Alice killing me for pulling a stunt like that, leaving only my underwear"

"Well as much as I would like to see you in your underwear, I don't really want Jasper seeing you in your underwear-

"Nor do I really want to see you in your underwear. No offense Bells, but I'll stick with admiring Alice."

I giggled; slightly embarrassed that he had heard our conversation.

Edward lifted me off of his lap and sat me on the edge of the near-by bed and moved to his suitcase on the floor. Bending over he provided a view I rarely was able to see, but loved getting the opportunity.

Giggling behind me snapped me out of my trance. I whipped around to find Alice in a large t-shirt that displayed a bands name on the front. She pranced over to where I was sitting and whispered in my ear, "Enjoy the view?"

Embarrassed at having been caught, yet unable to lie, I nodded, creating more giggles from Alice.

Edward stood a t-shirt and shorts in hand, with a puzzled look on his face.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh nothing," I replied, turning even more red than before.

He handed me the shirt and I went into the bathroom after Jasper finished.

I put on the t-shirt to find that I came to my upper thigh and unfolded the shorts to find that they were in fact boxers. _Hmm_, I thought, _so he's a boxer guy._ I put the boxers on and headed out of the bathroom to find a hanger in which to place the dress on.

I walked back into the bedroom to find Alice and Jasper cuddled together on the bed closer to the wall and Edward lying propped up against the head board on the bed closer to the window, one hand on the remote the other behind his head.

"Where are Emmett and Rose?" I asked not having seen or heard from the couple in a while.

I received shrugs from the others and therefore decided to take a peak into the other room. What I found was so adorable and slightly funny I almost fell into laughter.

"Guys come look at this. Alice grab the camera." I whispered to them, waving my hand for them to follow me.

Alice took a picture of the couple, as both of us tried to prevent our laughter.

Rose was curled up like a cat in Emmett's side, wearing a long t-shirt that was riding high up on her leg. Emmett however took up the _entire _bed, lying spread eagle on the mattress, the blankets tossed uselessly to the side. A loud snore ripped through the room, emanating from Emmett. I tip-toed over to the two, grabbed a corner of the blanket and covered as much of them as I could. I shut off the light on the bedside table and exited the room, shutting the door behind me.

I moved to the bed where Edward sat waiting. Alice and Jasper were cuddled together on their bed, arms around the other. I climbed on the bed and wrapped my arms around Edward's waist.

I was so comfortable it caused me to dream of never having to let go, but unfortunately with the two of us living in two different states at the moment, letting go seemed inevitable.

"What are we going to do when you have to go back?" I asked so quietly I wondered if he heard.

He was silent for so long that I thought I never voiced my fears, but he spoke into the quiet, "I don't know. I…I want…I wonder, maybe…" he seemed so nervous. I had never heard him stumble over his words before.

"Yes? What is it?"

"What if I moved here? I can transfer to the college in Anchorage and I could still be able to see you."

"But they don't have your degree program do they?" I asked. "Besides I don't want you to give up your dream just for me that is totally stupid."

"No it's not. I love you and I don't want to have to leave you. I haven't actually looked into the schools so I don't know what they offer, but as long as I get to be near you I could care less."

"But that's not fair to you. Your life is in Washington, what about your family? Would you and _could_ you seriously leave them?"

He was silent for a moment.

"I didn't think so….You know what it doesn't really matter; we will worry about it when the time comes."

"No, it does matter. I want to figure this out so that I can be with you."

I sighed. I knew that until the matter was solved his stubborn side would not allow him to forget it.

"What if we moved to you?" I asked, an idea forming.

"But that's not fair to you all. You all have jobs that are here, friends and family here, no as gentlemen we can't ask that of you girls."

"But I'm offering. Just hear me out. Carmen and Eleazer have thought about expanding the program opening other branches in other locations, to become more renowned and also possible earning more money, if the girls and I were to move closer to where you three were that possibility could come to life. And technically we have no family here. Carmen and Eleazer are more like family friends, not biological relatives."

"But-"

"Wait. We could move, because our jobs allow it. Therefore it will allow each of you to keep your jobs and continue schooling. Also you will be able to stay closer to your parents. So we would have jobs, you would have your jobs, you can stay with your parents, and in the end all of us will still be together."

"But you are still picking up and leaving everything _you_ have. 'Family' whether biological or not, friends, your home." He said ticking off with his fingers, "Didn't you girls grow up here?"

"Actually no, we moved here. Technically we were…well Rose was born in California, Alice was born in New York, and I was born in Italy, hence the reason for my name. After our parents died, we moved around with Rose's modeling, then met Kate and her family so we moved here to settle down. It was rather an interesting childhood. Anyways, the only real tie we have to any thing is this town, but it is not a very strong tie, since we didn't move until after are parents died, it's not like this is our home town or anything. So we could move, as you said 'as long as we are together we're happy."

He chuckled, "Okay, if and I emphasize _if _you move closer to us, I'm still not keen on the idea of you having to pick up and move everything, what are you going to do about a house?"

"Buy one," I said, "Isn't that obvious?"

"There are not an over abundance of houses available. Besides even if you do find one what are you going to do about a training center for the dogs?"

"Edward you underestimate us, particularly Alice, she's good at this kind of thing. Besides we have your mom _and_ Carmen, they _especially_ are not going to let us live on the streets waiting for a house, not that you would either, but you are just being to pessimistic, have faith."

He smiled gently, "Okay. So it's settled you are moving closer to us."

"Good. Now I am exhausted, let's go to sleep."

He chuckled, "Yes ma'am,"

I curled into his side and held him close, glad to have finalized ideas for our future.

***

My sleep was peaceful that night, filled with dreams of the future, Edward and mine in particular. It started with wedding bells, morphing to us with children running around, and finishing with Edward and I on a porch swing hand in hand old and grey with age.

I awoke to find Edward smiling down on me.

"Good morning," he said.

"Good morning," I replied.

"I hear that our future is bright," he smirked, mischievousness in his eyes.

"What do you mean?" I asked cautiously.

"Well I believe you mentioned an annoying wedding gown, then something about 'Anthony don't run', then it turned into you asking me how it was possible that I could and I quote 'Still look so damn sexy old'."

My blush increased its shade with every word spoken. He chuckled in response, "Don't worry love, I like your ideas and would like even better to see them come to life."

_Beep, beep, beep_

The alarm clock on the bed stand began its annoying chime, officially waking me up, and also causing Alice and Jasper to rouse from sleep.

I jumped off the bed, making Edward groan in frustration, and bounced semi-gracefully over to my sisters' bed. Gaining my balance I jumped onto the bed and began bouncing animatedly up and down next to Alice.

Jasper let out a low groan, while Edward snickered from the other bed.

"Love, why is your sister disturbing our sleep by jumping on us?" he asked his voice still thick with sleep.

Alice giggled, as she was fully awake, "Because I do it to her all the time, now, I'm only assuming here, because she was up before I was, she decided to pay me back for every time I do the same to her. Am I right?" she asked turning to me, her face turned up in a large grin.

I nodded my head in excited agreement, "You dish it out, be prepared to have it dished back!" I stated laughing.

"Yes but do you have to take it out on me too?" Jasper asked suppressing a groan.

I laughed heartily and climbed off the bed.

"Time to get up!" I sang to the room. I glanced at Edward to find him smiling gently at me, still lying on the bed.

"May I ask why you are so hyper this morning? Isn't that _my _job?" Alice asked with slight suspicion laced in her tone.

"I don't know," I answered with a shrug. "I guess I'm just in a good mood."

I noticed Alice glance between Edward and I with a curious glint in her eye, but it was over before I could ask about it.

Alice bounced out of the bed to my side, "Well what are we going to do about clothes?"

"I don't know," I replied.

Edward turned to the two of us, "Would you be willing to wear some of our clothes? Or at least a shirt that belongs to us and you could wear the pants that you wore yesterday, at least until we get you back to your house."

I shrugged my shoulders, "Sounds good to me," I turned to Alice who looked slightly appalled, her face calculating a way to get out of wearing something she wore the day before.

"Humph," she grumbled, "I see no way out of it so I guess I will have to."

I chuckled at her response, "Maybe you could ask someone to make you feel better about wearing the same pants you wore the day before," I asked suggestively, nodding toward smirking Jasper who was still comfortable on the bed.

Alice grinned widely and bounced back toward the bed. I grabbed Edward's hand from behind me, "We are going to have to hurry, otherwise we might see things that siblings are not meant to."

He laughed quietly and pulled me over to his suitcase.

After going through it for a moment I selected a t-shirt, grabbed my jeans off of the floor and made my way to the bathroom.

I quickly changed and washed my face, brushing my hair and teeth

Edward entered the bathroom as soon as I exited. I went over to my discarded clothes and dress and placed them on top of Edward's suitcase.

Edward came up behind me and took my hand, placing his clothes next to where I had just laid my own.

"I think I kind of like seeing your clothes next to mine," Edward whispered quietly, as we glanced down at the bulging luggage bag.

"Come love, let's get something to eat."

With my hand in his we headed out the door almost colliding with Emmett and Rosalie.

"Hey guys," Edward stated.

"Sleep well?" I asked.

"Amazingly," Rosalie answered.

"Let's go eat I'm starving," came Emmett's booming voice, causing the rest of us to laugh at his blunt nature.

The four of us made our way to the near-by elevators and descended to the main floor. We circled the floor to locate a restaurant of sorts.

"What if we go to the place the mom and dad took us?" Edward asked looking over at his enormous brother.

"Sounds good," he replied. The guys led us over to a delicate eatery where a hostess was standing with menus in her possession.

"How many?" she asked politely after our approach.

"Just four…well two more may join us later, but for now just four." Edward answered, his smile causing the girl's eyes to glaze over. I cocked my eyebrow and tightened my grip on Edward, clearing my throat.

The girl started out of her daze and blushed lightly looking down. She grabbed another menu and turned away showing us to our seats. Behind me Rose and Emmett snickered at my obvious display of 'claiming'. Edward simply looked smug.

At the table, after being seated, Edward leaned close to my ear, "Are we jealous love?"

"Not jealous, 'because I know she can't have you. Just making my claim known." He chuckled at my response and kissed me lightly on the nose.

Throughout breakfast we held hands, occasionally stealing kisses. When we weren't showing affection, and Rose and Emmett were not to busy with each other either, the four of us talked about the events of yesterday.

After about 45 minutes, Alice and Jasper entered the restaurant.

"Nice of you to grace us with your presence," Rose smirked. Alice replied with an adult attitude by sticking out her tongue. I rolled my eyes at their silly antics.

In the middle of a break between conversations, Edward nudged my arm, "Should we tell them our idea?" he asked.

I looked around the table to find four pairs of curious eyes glancing between the two of us.

"What idea?" Emmett voiced.

"Um..." I started, "Well, Edward and I were talking last night about…well our future arrangements," every face took on disappointment at having to think about the future without the other, "We seem to agree that we can't be separated." The faces lightened at the idea that as a group we all could still be together.

"What if Alice, Rose, and I moved to Washington, to live closer to you guys?" I paused waiting to hear any voices of dislike, when none came I continued.

"You see, Carmen and Eleazer have voiced that they would like the idea of expansion. If we move to Washington, most likely to an area where skiing and snowboarding and what- not occur, we could make that dream happen, and in the meantime we would still be able to spend time with the guys. The only problem is we would have to locate and or build a training facility and a house. So…what do you think?"

"Hell yes!" came Emmett's excited reply.

"It sounds like a wonderful idea, and if you girls have to build a house, I'm sure our parents would have no problems with you living with us until it's finished." Jasper eloquently voiced.

Alice was bouncing on her stool, "That is a _fantastic_ idea Bella!"

"I like it. It may be hard to have to redo our house _and_ a training center, but if it has to be done, we are the best choice to do it." Rosalie answered.

I smiled widely, "Great, well then we might want to start the planning and preparations."

***

_**A/n: I know it seems very 'uppity' and a little too 'happy-go-lucky', but I am trying to end the story soon. I don't want to create any conflict, but I don't want to end the story to fast, so I am just focusing on the couples and how the get closer together. Sorry if you want more drama but I don't want any more. **_


	21. Chapter 21

Sorry for taking so long hit writer's block. Hope you enjoy

BPOV

Time has flown by and everything has been completed. Well almost a few things sort of snuck up on us, preventing from being _completely _settled into our new life.

It's been six months since we opened the training facility and in that time my sisters and I have been able to successfully rescue seventeen people.

Edward has finished schooling for the year allowing us to spend even more time together. It's incredible. Edward is still his charming and amazing self, taking me out to dinner, sitting with me on the couch watching movies, and sometimes just talking till the early hours of the morning.

When we first moved in with the boys, Esme was overjoyed at being given an excuse to design a house. Carmen was more than eager to assist with the building designs and assist with the progress of the training facility.

The house was two stories with a room for each of us on a different side of the house. Alice insisted on added space in the closets for the boys, yet she has yet to allow Jasper any space for his own clothes, instead she takes up all the room (his stuff is currently being shared with Edwards, since our own closet is not as full).

The dogs are even well adjusted to their new surroundings. Enjoying the large backyard, the snow covered ground and trees, as well as the long river that runs past the back of the house. They still find new things to sniff out around the yard and in the new training complex, but have so much fun doing it.

Our garage has expanded from the one at the other home, where Kate and Garrett are currently living as they will be getting married in the next few months. It is now filled with not only our own cars and trucks, but the four-wheelers, snowmobiles, and added space for one of the guy's cars (which meant they had to car pool over to our house- Alice is all about protecting the environment).

Each of our rooms was made larger but otherwise is almost identical to those at our other home. Alice wanted to make them larger in case of 'growth' in our family, which happened to be announced three days later (it always was eerie how she seemed to 'know' things).

The only rule that was put in place by Esme and Carmen were the 'visiting hours' set for the guys to come over. As Emmett so gently put it, they want to prevent any 'baby making' from occurring at this time. Although I edited what he _actually _said.

It was good they set up these rules otherwise Carlisle and Esme would be the proud grandparents of two babies. Unfortuneately they were not quick enough to put the rules in place before Rose and Emmett became too physical.

Rose is being an even more difficult nightmare with the up and coming birth of her first baby girl, but hey that's Rose for you. We (Alice, Jazz, Edward and I) just hope that this girl finally is able to put Emmett in his place as a father- with Rosalie's looks and his annoying humor they are going to have a tough times on their hands. And it is so lucky that I just get to be the Aunt!! So instead of having to raise them I, along with Alice, am simply able to spoil her rotten (Alice _loves_ this fact)!

With the announcement of a baby everyone is now in a scurry to complete the new house next door, where Emmett and Rose will be living. Rose did not want to have to put Alice and me through the first few months of little sleep and crying and therefore insisted on another home. Esme and Carmen jumped on the bandwagon very quickly and began work on the second house. The house was modified to benefit the baby and the new parents to be, but is still similar in many ways to where Alice and I will be living.

For instance, Esme always wished that the kitchen was nearby during the pregnancy as well as after the baby was born due to the constant need of things _in_ the kitchen. Carmen heartily agreed and also added the fact that the bathroom should be if not _in_ the room definitely nearby. Rose assured that it was to be _in_ the room, she was not going to allow people to be in her house and have her watch them as the go from the bathroom to their own room in nothing but a towel or worse. We all laughed at Rose's disgusted tone.

This subject then became, "When are you going to get married?" Rose was at a complete loss, Emmett stupidly enough started laughing (he received a slap on the back of the head).

These last few weeks Emmett has been easily frustrated, angered, and going through random mood swings.

"Its funny," Rose told me and Alice one day, "If I wasn't the one carrying around the baby with a huge stomach to prove it; I'd swear he was the one that was pregnant." We turned with giggles as we watched Emmett storm back up the stairs after retrieving an icepack to nurse his wounds from the hammer he was using to make the baby bed.

I know Edward knows what the problem is, Alice agrees and states that Jasper knows as well, but neither will fill us in on the current reason for the mood swings from Emmett.

Oddly enough the three of them have been disappearing at different times and coming back with rather lame excuses. Of course Rose being as moody as she has been, this puts her off either into a yelling frenzy or in tears at the idea that Emmett is 'unhappy' with her and the new baby, yet I know for a fact that that is the last reason for the guys to be leaving.

Since the day he found out he was going to be a father, he has had a grin on his face telling everyone the news (except for the occasional mood swings which seem to occur more when the guys return from a mysterious trip), even those he doesn't know. He constantly worships the baby, bestowing it with kisses- well Rose's belly with kisses. Rose even tells about how he will read or sing to the baby.

So when Rose begins to cry to Alice and me about how unhappy Emmett is we simply remind her of all the things he continually does for her and the baby, quickly drying her tears. Yet despite the mood swings and Rose displaying to him and others her fear of him leaving her, the guys have yet to desist what they are doing, sneaking away at awkward times and returning with poor excuses. I have my theories, but so do Rose and Alice; however the boys still refuse to confide in us what they are up to. Oh well, I am sure we will hear about it sooner or later.

Besides that the six of us have grown stronger in relationships than ever before. We still enjoy our little outings, but more often than not we are scattered throughout the house enjoying each other's company and the peace and quiet, while we still have it.

I think the one advantage of the guys being lost in an avalanche gave us the ability to grow as couples and friends. Sometimes I find myself pondering over those events and wonder where we would be today without those traumatic experiences.

"Exactly where we are now, together, forever," Edward said after I voiced my thoughts to him one evening. "I think it was fate that we met and no matter how it happened or what happened along the way we still would have been brought together to create this crazy little family."

We started laughing as we watched Alice chase Jasper through the living room into the kitchen with a long roll of cloth crying out to him, "Please Jazzy, I just want to see what it would look like?!" At the same time Rose's voice echoed through the house, "Emmett! Can you get me some pickles and ice cream?! Those crunchy pickles not those other kind."  
Edward was right, it was fate for this corky little family (that is growing) to meet and be together, forever.

**_The End_**

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Thanks for Reading and those _fabulous_ Reviews!!


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